Section
SANDY, ORÉGON THURSDAY, NOV. 13, 1980
The Srfnäy Post
Sports
and Recreation
Pioneers overcome Estacada for state net berth
by M ARK FLO Y D
The road to the state playoffs was a
rocky one for Sandy and the Pioneers
w ill face an even harder task in the
days to come.
But for the fourth straight year, the
Sandy High girls volleyball team w ill be
going to state.
The Pioneers outlasted Estacada in a
p la y o ff at C anby.H igh, S a tu rd a y,
winning 9-15, 15-6, 154 to claim the
Tim ber Valley le a g ue ’s second playoff
berth. Sweet Home won the league title
with a 13-1 record, including a late
season win over Sandy.
Now the Pioneers face the unenviable
task of playing Beaverton on the road
in the firs t round of the state playoffs.
The match against the state's second-
ranked team w ill be Saturday at 7 p.m.
at Beaverton High School The winner
of that match w ill go on to le w is and
Clark for the eight-team tournament to
decide the state champion.
Should Sandy be fortunate enough to
get by Beaverton, its second round
opponent would be undefeated Cor
vallis, defending state champs and
ranked No. 1 again this season. To take
it a step further, should the Pioneers
win that one too, they would have to
play No. 3 Barlow in the semifinals, and
the Bruins swept through the Wilco
league without a loss. And finally,
should Sandy get that far, it would face
No. 4 St. M a ry’s in the finals, if there
are no upsets in the upper bracket.
‘ We probably have the toughest
situation of any team, but we are
capable of playing with anybody,”
Sandy coach Ron Grantz said. “ I t ’s
tough to be confident going in, but we
have reason not to duck under for
anyone. We’ve played all those teams
tough this season.”
‘ The difference is, the other teams
have done better because they’ve been
m ore co n siste n t,” G rantz added.
“ We’ve played as well as a ll of them at
times, but we’ve lacked any kind of
consistency.”
Consistency is one thing the Pioneers
are going to need at state because there
w ill be no m argin for error against such
quality opponents. The Pioneers w ill
have to beat the state’s top three teams,
barring upsets, just to get into the
CLASS AAA FIRST ROUND
St. M ary's at Washington-Monroe,
Tuesday, 7 p.m.
U Grande at Clackamas, Tuesday,
7 p.m.
Marshfield
at
Grants
Pass.
Tuesday, 7 p.m.
Cleveland at lakeridge, Tuesday, 7
p.m.
SECOND ROUND
Washington-Monroe or St. M ary's at
I eke Oswego, Saturday, tim eT B A .
Iebanon at Sweet Home, Saturday,
finals. But, as Grantz said, they can
play with any of them.
Sandy split its two games with
Beaverton at the Sandy tournament
this year, but got crushed in straight
games by the Beavers at the Barlow
tourney. The Pioneers were forced to
play without setter Colene McDonald,
however.
The Pioneers also played Corvallis at
Barlow and lost just 15-12, 15-13, then
played the Spartans at a jamboree in
Clackamas and took them to overtim e
7:30 p.m.
Clackamas or leVgrande at M a r
shall, Saturday, 2 p.m.
Medford at Thurston, Saturday, 1
p.m.
Grants Pass or Marshfield at Cor
vallis, Saturday, 1p.m.
Sandy at Beaverton, Saturday time
TBA
I ¿ikeridge or Cleveland at Barlow,
Saturday, time TBA.
Jackson at Mountain View, Satur
day, time TBA.
before losing 16-14. As Grantz noted,
they can play with anyone.
It didn’t look that way in the first
game against Estacada Saturday. The
Rangers earned a match against Sandy
by upsetting Oregon City in the opener
15-5,8-15,16-14. Oregon City led 14-11 in
the final game and had several chances
to put away the pesky Rangers, but
succumbed to their own errors.
Against Sandy, Estacada overcame a
7-1 deficit in the first game and toppled
the Pioneers 15-9.
“ We were up 7-1, then they outscored
us 14-2 to win it,'' Grantz said. “ We
started out hot, then lost it. Everyone
was standing around and the ball was
dropping in. Neither team played well
the whole match — we played a little
better and won it.”
The Pioneers came back behind the
hitting of Cherie E llio tt and Dawn New
to take the second game 15-5, a game
which seemed to last the whole night.
There were so many sideouts, that both
teams used up their three allotted
substitutions and some people were
forced to play all the way around in the
rotation. And all those substitutions
were used up by the time the score was
;>-3 for Sandy.
But McDonald began finding the
range on her sets and E llio tt started to
hit. Then Estacada helped out by
making some serving errors and the
Pioneers broke open a close game. The
Rangers also had troubles passing and
the ball began d riftin g over the net, a
dangerous habit with the 5-foot-ll New
in the middle for Sandy. Three times in
the game New reached up and slam
med the errant passes to the floor and
the Pioneers had the game.
They built up a 10-1 lead in the final
game behind the hitting of E llio tt and
New and some nice blocks by New.
Then Sandy lost it and the parade of
sideouts began. Luckily, Estacada was
also making errors and the teams
swapped points until Sandy had its 15.
Grantz was a bit disturbed by the fact
that he got some shaky play by a couple
of his regulars, but was generally
pleased with Peggy Gillies and Linda
Mosbrucker off the bench. Stephanie
Hagstrom also had a few troubles with
her m obility after sustaining a badly
bruised knee in practice last week.
“ We really weren't that sharp,”
G ra n tz a d m itte d . “ The B eaverton
coach was there and I ’m sure she left
feeling pretty good. Beaverton is a good
fundamental team and they have a
couple good hitters. We’ll have to play
well to w in.”
“ We’re going to have to pass the ball
well and scramble on the floor, not
stand around,” Grantz added. “ And we
need to hit the ball like we’re capable of
doing. We’ve got the ability to do it, now
we just got to decide to do it.”
Sandy girls ready this time
for state cross country meet
by M AR K FLO YD
Running together has been a trademark for the Sandy girls this season and Ie u ra Stringham (le ft>
and Renee Hess use each other to find the early pace in meets.
A fter many hours of preparation and
several hundred miles of running, the
whole season w ill boil down to 11 short
minutes fo r the Sandy High girls cross
country team.
Eleven minutes is just about how
much tim e it w ill take to negotiate the
3,000 meter course this Saturday at
la n e Community College in Eugene.
The Pioneers are ready. In fact,
they’ve never been more ready for a big
race, according to coach John White.
“ I ’ve looked at the last four or five
seasons, and we’ve run more miles this
year than ever before,” White said.
“ And we’re in better shape mentally
because of the way we've trained. The
thought of a long run now doesn’t seem
to bother the girls like it did last year.”
The Sandy girls would probably just
as soon forget last year. True, the
Pioneers did capture the district crown
for the first tim e in the school’s history,
and they did finish higher (12th, than
any Sandy team ever had at state. But
they didn’t live up to their own ex
pectations.
“ We just didn’t run well down there,”
White said of last year’s race. “ We
peaked for d istrict and just didn’t do
anything at state. I plugged our times
in from d istrict last year, the courses
were comparable, and we could have
finished as high as seventh.”
The Pioneers are using a slightly
different strategy this year.
Sandy
gambled somewhat by training through
the d istrict meet and concentrating on
peaking at state. The speedwork and
intervals usually take five weeks,
according to White's calendar, and
d istrict was right in the middle of that
stretch. It didn’t faze the Pioneers too
much as they still romped to the d istrict
title.
This year White started the speed-
work five weeks before state was
scheduled. le s t season, Sandy ran its
best race five weeks after it began the
interval work and went downhill from
there.
So the Pioneers should be
peaked for state.
‘‘I f our top five girls run super, and
everyone is healthy, we have a shot at
finishing in the top six,” White said.
“ But everyone would have to run fast
and we’d probably have to put our firs t
five in the top 50 runners.”
“ That would really mean running
w ell,” he added. “ I-ast year our second
Gayle Roth
runner was 70th, but if you look at the
times you can see the difference.”
Gayle Roth finished 36th fo r Sandy in
11:34.5 last year. Ie u ra Stringham was
second, placing 70th in 11:57.9. le s t
week at district, Roth ran 11:09 and
should be well under 11 minutes with
the extra training. Stringham is a half
minute ahead of last year. In addition,
Donna Nelson should finish light years
ahead of last year where she nursed a
knee in ju ry and placed 117th.
White hopes those three w ill take
after Alice Hunger of Oregon City and
Kathy Nichols of West lin n , who
finished one-two at the Tim ber Valley
league d istrict meet. He plans to send
Renee Hess, Darby Binder and Sharon
Jensen after Tricia Sliger of Oregon
City, who was fourth.
“ We’ll probably key on Hunger,”
White admitted. “ She’ll go out hard,
but with our additional speedwork, we
should be able to keep right with her.”
Just where that w ill be may be the
key to Sandy’s success. There are at
least five good teams and a dozen or so
tough individuals at state this year.
Aloha looks to be the overwhelming
favorite for the team title , but Lincoln,
Ashland, Crook County and Newberg
w ill have a say in it.
Individually, defending champ Kathy
Hayes of Newberg w ill be among the
favorites, but she w ill be challenged by
a strong field of runners including Ellen
Schlotter of Medford, Karen Jensen of
Lincoln, Melinda Brown of Hillsboro,
Pam Vasey of Glencoe, M elanie
Woodworth of Cottage Grove, K im Roth
of Sprague, Claudette Groenendaal of
North Salem, T ik i Morrow of Bend, and
possibly, Nichols and Hunger.
But many of those runners are
competing as individuals and their
places w ill be thrown out in the team
scoring.
“ The g irls want to bring home a
trophy, which means we’d have to be in
the top three,” White noted. ‘ ‘I ’d be
very, very happy w ith that. I ’d be
pleased if we were in the top six. We
should be in the top 10 — if we aren’t,
something went wrong.”
Finishing in the top six, or the tope
three, isn’t out of the question. But the
Pioneers are going to have to run ex
trem ely well. Not just one or two of
them, but the whole team.
The Pioneers have set a goal of each
runner clipping 20 seconds off her time
recorded at district. In some cases they
w ill need more.
Health may be a m ajor factor.
Nelson has been plagued with swollen
tonsils and Jensen has been fighting a
bad cold for more than a week. She has
missed several workouts. At this time
of the year, every workout is vita l and
every different colored jersey that
passes a Sandy runner, Saturday, could
be the one that moves them down a
notch.
The girls race is scheduled to begin at
11:30 a m. at Ie n e Community College
in Eugene. The college is located some
four miles south of Eugene off Inter
state 5.
The Pioneers w ill make the long trip
down to Eugene, Friday night, but the
tim e that counts, those crucial 11
minutes, won’t come until Saturday
morning.
“We've got to go out quick,” White
said. “ But the most important part of
the race is the middle portion. “ At the
end, there w ill be 5,000 people ringing
the track. I t ’s just incredible. No one
quits that last 600 meters, not with 5,000
people staring at you.
The whole
season is right there.
“ I told the girls to be where they want
to lie halfway through the race,” he
added. “ That’s what we’ve done all
year. Work hard to get that position
halfway through, then maintain it the
rest of the way in.”
“ I t ’s in the middle, where everyone is
hurting, that you have to work hard.”
State tournament history
The Race: The girls Class AAA State Cross
Country Championship
The Place: Iene Community College in Eugene
The Tim e. Nov. 15at 11:30a.m.
The Top Teams: Aloha, Lincoln, Newberg,
Ashland, Crook County
The Top Individuals: Kim Roth, Sprague;
Claudette Groenendaal, North Salem; Tiki
Morrow, Bend; Kathy Hayes, Newberg; Ellen
Schlotter, Medford; Kathy Nichols, West Linn;
Karen Jensen, Lincoln; Melinda Brown,
Hillsboro; Pam Vasey, Glencoe; Melanie
Woodworth, Cottage Grove.
The Runners: Gayle Roth, junior, Donna
Nelson,
sophomore,
I a u ra
Stringham,
sophomore, Renee Hess, senior, Sharon Jensen,
freshman, Darby Binder, junior; Kelly Douglas,
aophormoe; Kim Pearson, sophomore
Tap Previous Sand> Finish : 12th in 1979, 19th in
1978
Top Previous Sandy Individual: Gayle Roth, 36th
in 1979 — 11:34.5
le s t Year's Sandy Results: Gayle Roth 36th,
11:34.5; Laura Stringham, 70th, 11:57.9; Cindy
Kudisill, 86th, 12:09.4; Renee Hess. 94th, 12:12.6,
Donna Nelson, 117th, 12.29 9; Darby Binder,
118th, 12:30.9; Teresa Caba, 134th, 12:51.6.
la s t Year's Team Results: 1) Hillsboro, 106; 2)
Sunset, 111; 3) lin c o ln , 130; 4) South Salem, 114;
5) Sprague, 150, 6) Crook County, 159; 7) South
Eugene. 214; 8) Churchill, 247; 9) Wilson, 264; 10)
Newberg, 287
la s t Year's Individual Results: 1) Kathy Hayes,
Newberg, 10:23.5; 2) Alice Munz, South Eugene,
10.33.6; 3) K e rry Martinson, Sunset, 10 39.6; 4)
Pam Vaaey, Hillsboro, 10 43.0; 5) T iki Morrow,
Bend, 10:43.3; 6) la w Johnson. 10:43.6; 7)
Claudette Groenendaal, North Salem, 10:49.6; 6 )
Kim Roth, Sprague, 10:58 2; 9) Brenda Bushnell,
Churchill, 10:54 1; 10) Carol Prouet, North
Eugene. 10:57 0.
I
Two of Sandy's supersophs, IK »on a
Nelson i right) and Laura Stringham
take aim on the front of the pack at
the recent Tim ber Valley league
district meet. Roth have won races
for the Pioneers this year and are
keys for Sandy at the state meet.
photos by Mark Floyd