12A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2016
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Gary Henley | Sports Reporter
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SPORTS
IN BRIEF
Lady Mooks spike Seagulls in sweep
Lady Fish
go down
swinging
in loss
The Daily Astorian
SEASIDE — In other Cowapa
League volleyball action Wednes-
day, ifth-ranked Tillamook scored a
three-game sweep at Seaside, 25-20,
25-21, 25-11.
The Lady Mooks kept pace with
Banks in the league standings, with
the two teams tied for second at 7-2,
behind Valley Catholic (8-1).
Tillamook senior Jordan Zweifel,
left, and Maddi Utti go one-on-
one at the net in Wednesday
night’s volleyball match.
The Daily Astorian
The Astoria volleyball team
went down swinging Wednesday
night at the Brick House, in the
inal regular season home match
of the season.
Banks ultimately left with a
three-game sweep, 25-17, 25-12,
25-22, but the state’s fourth-
ranked team at least had to work
for it.
Astoria honored its two seniors
— Aurora Grafton and Jacqueline
Jarrett — before the match, and
both had a few ‘Senior Moments’
during the match.
But most of the night belonged
to the Braves, who improved to
7-2 in league play, tied with Tilla-
mook for second.
The Braves trailed by a point
early in Game 1, then reeled off a
13-2 run to take control.
Four ace serves by sopho-
more Bella Albert, a stuff block by
Dani Neuman and two more aces
from freshman Emma White high-
lighted the rally.
Grafton set up kills for Kes
Sandstrom and Madi Landwehr to
help the Lady Fishermen close to
within 20-16, before Banks went
on a 5-2 run to close the game.
A 10-1 start to Game 2 led to
the easiest win of the night for the
Braves, a 13-point victory high-
lighted by the play of senior Mad-
die Standley.
Astoria held its largest lead of
the night in the third set, as Jar-
rett had a stuff block on Albert,
Chelsea Christensen had a kill off
a block, and Landwehr set Jarrett
for another kill that led to a 6-2
lead.
The Braves responded with a
14-6 run to grab a 16-12 advan-
tage — but Jarrett came up with
a few senior moments in her inal
home match.
Jarrett had two more stuff
blocks on Albert, tapped a ball
over the Braves’ front line for
another point, and a third block on
Albert gave the Lady Fishermen a
19-17 lead.
But the lead just wouldn’t last
against the multi-talented Braves,
who outscored Astoria 8-3 to close
out the match for another three-
game sweep.
The Lady Fishermen showed
last weekend that they could play
with the Braves, winning one of
three games (25-20) against Banks
in Saturday’s Seaside Tournament.
Astoria returns to action Sat-
urday in the Corbett Tournament,
then closes out the season Tuesday
at Scappoose.
Jeff Ter Har/For the Daily Astorian
SCOR EBOARD
PREP SCHEDULE
TODAY
Football — Banks at Astoria, 7 p.m.; Per-
rydale JV at Jewell, 7 p.m.
Volleyball — Knappa at Nestucca, 6 p.m.
Boys Soccer — Gladstone at Seaside,
6:30 p.m.
FRIDAY
Football — Tillamook at Seaside, 7 p.m.;
Portland Christian at Warrenton, 7 p.m.;
Neah-Kah-Nie at Knappa, 7 p.m.; Ilwaco at
Willapa Valley, 7 p.m.
Cubs wait to see who One ace standing: Nats’
they’ll meet in NLCS Scherzer to face Dodgers
By ANDREW SELIGMAN
AP Sports Writer
CHICAGO — Best in the majors
this season, the Chicago Cubs cleared
their irst big October hurdle. Now,
they wait to see who’s next.
The Cubs advanced to the NL
Championship Series for the
second straight year by
knocking out the San
Francisco Giants in a
thrilling
four-game
NLDS. They will face
the winner of Thurs-
day’s Game 5 between
the Washington Nation-
als and Los Angeles
Dodgers in what they hope
will be another step toward the
World Series championship that has
eluded the franchise since 1908.
Game 1 is at Wrigley Field on
Saturday.
“I think it validates on a lot of dif-
ferent levels the job that we have done
to this point,” manager Joe Maddon
said. “I think if you’re a player on this
particular team within the organiza-
tion, it’s getting to the point now you
want to expect to get to the postseason
and you want to expect to get deeply
into the postseason. It also speaks to
the way we played.”
Chicago is looking for more this
time after getting swept by the New
York Mets in the NLCS a year ago.
The Cubs dominated like no other
team in the majors this season, run-
ning away with the NL Central cham-
pionship. They got off to a 25-6 start
and spent all but two days in irst place
on the way to a major league-best 103-
58 record — the most wins by the
Cubs since they inished the 1910 sea-
son with 104.
For a franchise deined by heart-
break rather than championships, one
can only imagine the anxiety in Chi-
cago had the NLDS returned to Wrig-
ley Field for a Game 5 on Thurs-
day. But instead of the billy
goat and black cat and
Bartman , all thoughts
are on the next round
for a team that has
followed Maddon’s
advice to embrace the
high expectations.
“I think we’re grow-
ing every day,” pitcher
Jon Lester said. “The
biggest theme for us is just
never quit. We always battle and grind
out until the last out and see what
happens.”
The NLDS sure was one wild
grind.
That series had it all, whether it was
Lester and Johnny Cueto dominating
on the mound in Game 1, Javier Baez
coming up with huge hits or spectacu-
lar plays, the Giants rallying in Game 3
and ultimately winning in 13 innings,
or the Cubs scoring four in the ninth on
Tuesday to wrap things up.
The Cubs joined the 1986 New
York Mets (in Game 6 of the NLCS
against Houston) as the only teams
to rally from a three-run deicit in the
ninth to win a playoff series clincher.
They also stopped the San Francisco’s
10-game winning streak when facing
postseason elimination and squashed
the possibility of another even-year
championship.
By STEPHEN WHYNO
AP Sports Writer
WASHINGTON — While going
to ace Clayton Kershaw on short
rest helped the Los Angeles Dodg-
ers stave off elimination in their NL
Division Series against the Wash-
ington Nationals, it also has raised
the question:
Who will start Game 5 for the
Dodgers?
“I know Kershaw isn’t pitching,”
Nationals manager Dusty Baker
said. “Thank God.”
While there will be no Kershaw
and LA manager Dave Roberts
still has not named his starter, the
Nationals will hand the ball to Cy
Young Award candidate Max Scher-
zer in the decisive Game 5 at home
Thursday night.
With a spot in the NL Champi-
onship Series against the Chicago
Cubs at stake, Scherzer is the man
Washington wants on the mound
and he’s embracing the pressure.
“I’ve kind of said over the past
few days, I’ve said that a hand-
ful of times throughout my career,
‘Hey, this is the biggest start of my
career,”’ Scherzer said Tuesday.
“How you handle that, going out
there using the emotion of that sce-
nario, that everything is on the line,
look, I’m not going to shy away
from it. This is the biggest start of
my career.”
Scherzer (20-7, 2.96 ERA)
lasted only six innings and lost
Game 1 after giving up home runs
to Corey Seager and Justin Turner.
While Scherzer is looking for
some redemption, the Dodgers are
looking forward to another shot at
him.
“I mean, we beat him once
already,” irst baseman Adrian Gon-
zalez said. “We put some pretty
good at-bats against him in Game 1,
and we’re conident that we can do
that again.”
The Nationals also had some
good at-bats against LA lefty Rich
Hill, beating him in Game 2. Hill
(12-5, 2.12) will most likely be the
Dodgers’ starter in Game 5, though
Roberts will use a “collection of
arms” and could quickly turn to
fresh 20-year-old lefty Julio Urias if
there’s trouble.
Washington’s bullpen has
been strong, but Scherzer is in the
spotlight.
“I know who Max is and how he
goes about it,” right ielder Bryce
Harper said. “I think there are
things we can do in the bullpen, as
well, if Max doesn’t get to the ninth.
He’s got a lot of help. So hopefully
we’ll get a couple of runs early and
do what we can to stay with our
approach and stay within ourselves
(and) just have a lot of fun.”
Scherzer considers the big stage
plenty of fun. He said it doesn’t mat-
ter that it’s not him against Kershaw
again and expects the Dodgers’ best
effort and a charged atmosphere.
“It’s going to be a heck of a ball-
game,” Scherzer said. “These are
two great teams. We’ve seen great
pitching, we’ve seen great offense,
great bullpens, clutch hitting. We’ve
seen it all. So the opportunity to go
out there in Game 5, back in D.C.
with our fans, it’s going to be a heck
of an experience.”
Beaver’s Collins excels in new receiver role Sounders
Former QBs
making impact at
other positions for
Pac-12 teams
By ANNE M. PETERSON
AP Sports Writer
CORVALLIS — The change in
position for Oregon State quarterback
Seth Collins seemed inevitable at the
end of last season, when he was used
in several roles in the inale against
Oregon.
The writing was on the wall: Utah
State transfer Darell Garretson would
be eligible to play this season, and it
looked like that was where the Bea-
vers were leaning at quarterback. Col-
lins decided to leave Oregon State and
go somewhere where he could play at
quarterback — but he never actually
left school.
Instead, he became a receiver.
Collins has embraced his new role,
joining a handful of prospective QBs
across the Pac-12 who have traded
positions. These shifts are usually
out of necessity if they want playing
time because another quarterback in
the so-called “Conference of Quarter-
backs” is established as the starter.
In Collins’ case, he was named
Oregon State’s starter at the begin-
ning of last season, coach Gary Ander-
sen’s irst with the Beavers. Fast and
athletic, Collins turned heads when he
actually hurdled a defender in a game
against Weber State.
Collins would go on to start seven
total games. He threw for 936 yards
and six touchdowns, while also rush-
ing for 580 yards and eight scores.
Sidelined by injury for four games,
he returned in the Civil War, lin-
ing up at running back, receiver and
quarterback.
In adjusting to his new multidi-
mensional role this season, Collins has
caught 24 passes for 268 yards, aver-
aging 11.2 yards a reception.
Last week Andersen said that
senior team captain Sean Harlow had
pointed to Collins’ passion during a
team address.
“In life, I love the word ‘edgy,”’
Andersen said about Collins. “I want to
be around people that they might make
you a little bit nervous. That’s good. I
love it. That’s where you want to live,
and there’s nothing wrong with that,
because you know that they’re going
to compete at whatever they’re doing.”
battle to
0-0 tie with
Dynamo
By MARK MOSCHETTI
Associated Press
AP Photo/Timothy J. Gonzalez
Oregon State’s Seth Collins, left, gets behind Boise State’s Bran-
don Arnold, right, to make a catch in the second half of an NCAA
college football game in September in Corvallis.
SEATTLE — Most nights, Stefan
Frei would be thrilled with a shutout
on the scoresheet and a point in the
standings.
On Wednesday, the Seattle keeper
and the rest of the Sounders clearly
were hoping for more.
Frei made ive saves, delecting
one shot off the right post, and the
Sounders played to a 0-0 tie with the
Houston Dynamo.
The draw moved the Sounders
(13-13-6, 45 points) closer to secur-
ing a spot in the MLS playoffs. The
Dynamo (7-13-12, 33 points) already
have been eliminated.
Seattle, which has surged to a
7-1-4 record since Brian Schmetzer
took over coaching duties in late
July, could have clinched a spot with
a win.