10A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2018 CONTACT US FOLLOW US facebook.com/ DailyAstorianSports Gary Henley | Sports Reporter ghenley@dailyastorian.com VOLLEYBALL PREP SOCCER Gaston holds off Knappa Seaside girls down Rainier, 7-0 KNAPPA — The league season is underway for Northwest League volleyball, with two matches Tues- day night. At Knappa, the Gaston Grey- hounds won their 28th straight reg- ular season league match, 25-10, 26-24, 25-18 over the Lady Loggers. Gaston has not lost a league match since a four-game defeat vs. Delphian on Oct. 13, 2015. Since then, the fifth-ranked Greyhounds have recorded back-to-back 12-0 league records in 2016 and ‘17. After the Game 1 loss, the Lady Loggers “could have given up at that point and called it a night, but the girls decided to play together and play hard as a team,” Knappa coach Jeff Kaul said. And while the Loggers dropped the next two games, “the girls put on a show and gave us all a little peek of what I have always known was there,” he said. The Loggers led 5-1 in Game 2 behind strong serving from Aiko Miller. Knappa led 15-12, but Gaston rallied and forced ties at 15, 18 and 22. The Loggers still led at 24-23, but a couple of Knappa errors and some strong serving by Gaston led to three straight points for the Greyhounds. Knappa was within 19-18 in Game 3, before Gaston reeled off the final six points to win. Vicki Ramvick led the Log- gers with five kills, four blocks and six touch blocks, while Kourtney Tischer added seven assists. Sophia Carlson added four kills, and Miller had nine digs and three ace serves. Knappa plays Thursday at Ilwaco, and takes part Saturday in the Neah-Kah-Nie Tournament. Junior varsity: Gaston def. Knappa, 26-24, 25-27, 15-9. In the other Northwest League match, Neah-Kah-Nie swept City Christian, 25-19, 25-20, 25-10. RAINIER — After opening the season with a loss and a tie last week, the Seaside girls soccer team scored its first victory of the year Tuesday, a 7-0 decision at Rainier. The Columbians (0-2 overall, with a loss last week at Astoria), started the game with just 10 play- ers and were down to eight by the end of the game. “Credit to Rainier for just play- ing,” said Seaside coach Josh Gar- hofer. “And their girls are tough, even when they went two players down.” Still, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the Gulls, whose first goal was scored by freshman Emma Arden. “Our midfielders all played well, Chloe (Bartel), Maddy (Brown) and Jess (Angulo-Joli), our striker who started the game on defense.” Seaside used three players in goal, with Taylor Carson playing the first half, and Kara Spell and Audrey Kunde in the second. The Gulls host Estacada at 3 p.m. Saturday. Seaside wins marathon match vs. Rainier, defeats Warrenton SEASIDE — It was a long night for the Seaside volleyball team Tuesday, as the Gulls hosted two nonleague matches with teams from the Coastal Range League. And the Gulls made it a clean sweep, with a thrilling five-game, marathon win over Rainier (21-25, 25-8, 27-29, 25-12, 21-19), followed by a four-game victory over Warren- ton, 25-10, 18-25, 25-22, 25-16. “The girls fought so hard tonight,” said first-year Seaside coach Demi Lund. “They showed some heart and a lot of fight. And that’s what I was asking for.” In the first match vs. Rainier, the Columbians led Game 5 14-10, needing only one more point to secure the win and end the match. “I called a timeout, and just told my players to show some fight,” Lund said. “And they did. We tied it at 14-14, then won it (21-19). At that point, a lot of it is conditioning. And we’re big on conditioning, and I think that’s how we pulled it out.” Meanwhile, Warrenton came in ranked third at the 3A level. “We may have been a little com- placent, and underestimated them,” Lund said of the Warriors. But “Bella (Samuelson) came through for us,” she said. “She stayed energetic all night, even when we were down against Rainier. And our libero, Maddy (Jensen), was all over the place, and made a lot of crazy saves.” The Gulls return to tournament action this weekend, Saturday at the Cascade Invitational. Jewell tops Livingstone JEWELL — Looking to avoid an 0-2 start in league, the Jewell volleyball team bounced back from last week’s loss at Willamette Val- ley Christian with a three-game win Tuesday over Livingstone Adven- tist, 25-19, 25-9, 25-16, in a Casco League match at Jewell. In other Casco action, Per- rydale swept Falls City, and St. Paul defeated Willamette Valley Christian. — The Daily Astorian Seaside boys win at Scappoose Photos by Walt Postlewait/For The Daily Astorian Bobby Brown of All Star Bass Fishing, center, stands with Astoria fishermen Leo Matthews, left, and Michael Postlewait. Astoria’s fishermen third in latest tourney By WALT POSTLEWAIT For The Daily Astorian OOS BAY — Astoria High School’s bass fish- ing team of Michael Postlewait and Leo Mat- thews finished third recently in the high school bass fishing tournament on Tenmile Lake, north of Coos Bay. Teams from Thurston and Banks, newcomers to the 2018-19 championship competition, finished first and second, respectively, with five fish bag weights of 11.21 and 10.38 pounds. Westview, winner of the previous tournament on Siltcoos Lake, was fourth. “We got off to a good start,” Postlewait said. “We hadn’t fished this lake before, but we designed a plan based on what we saw and researched. We were pretty excited with a couple early fish in the boat.” Astoria caught six fish on the day but only weighed four. “We had two good fish early and then caught two really small fish,” he said. “We culled them without a full box, thinking we were going to catch a lot of fish on the day. But the wind kicked up and the condi- tions changed. It got a lot harder to catch fish. It made our margin over Westview pretty thin, but in the end it didn’t hurt us.” Matthews said, “Our next two events in the spring will be on the Columbia (River), and we have had good luck with smallies (smallmouth bass). Last year our best tournament was out of The Dalles,” where the team secured the 2018 state championship. “We will need to finish really strong to repeat this year,” Matthews said. “But for Michael and I, that’s the goal. Back to back state championships.” Bobby Brown of All Star Bass Fishing took the Astoria team out after their boat experienced mechan- ical problems earlier in the week. C Mariners get into clubhouse brawl, then lose to Orioles 5-3 Associated Press Astoria High School students Leo Matthews, background, and Michael Postlewait, doing what they love. This is the second season Astoria has fielded a team to compete in statewide championship series hosted by The Bass Federation of Oregon. There will be a total of four events in the 2018-19 season, with the next tournament held on Celilo Pool on the Columbia River April 13. The season concludes May 11 at Cascade Locks. For more information about the AHS bass fishing team or high school bass fishing, email ahsbassfish- ingteam@gmail.com Storm and Mystics to meet in WNBA Finals By DOUG FEINBERG Associated Press Elena Delle Donne has the Wash- ington Mystics in the WNBA Finals for the first time in franchise history, where they’ll face Sue Bird and the Seattle Storm. The star forward came to Washing- ton last year to try and lead the Mys- tics to a championship. She has them one step away. “D.C.’s become home to me,” said Delle Donne, who grew up about two hours north in Delaware. “Now we need the city to rally behind us because we’re not finished yet.” Bird chose to stay in Seattle a few years ago while the franchise was rebuilding. Now she’ll get a chance to win her third WNBA championship. “It’s been a great run,” said Bird, who scored 14 of her 22 points in the final 5:48 of a 94-84 win over Phoe- nix in the semifinals Tuesday night. “When the season started I wasn’t sure what was going to happen and SCAPPOOSE — Scappoose has moved up a level to Class 5A, but that did not change anything between the Indians and the Sea- side boys soccer team Tuesday evening. The Gulls — expected to chal- lenge for a 4A state title — showed that they’ve still got the better team, with a 3-0 win over Scappoose in a game between the former Cowapa League rivals. Since 2007, Seaside holds a 16-3-5 record over Scappoose. The Gulls now take an eight-day break, and return to action Sept. 13 at home vs. Oregon Episcopal. — The Daily Astorian AP Photo/Elaine Thompson Seattle Storm players gather in a celebratory huddle after a 94-84 win over the Phoenix Mercury. now we’re in the Finals.” Game 1 is Friday night in Seattle. The two stars helped their teams win decisive Game 5s and advance to the championship round. Both players did so while overcoming injuries from earlier in their series. Delle Donne sustained a bone bruise in her left knee during Game 2 that forced her to miss the third game of the series. Bird broke her nose in Game 4 and sat out the second half. Yet with the season on the line, both stepped up. They certainly didn’t do it alone. Washington rookie Ariel Atkins was instrumental, leading her team with 20 points and seven rebounds Tues- day in an 86-81 victory over Atlanta. “My goodness did Ariel Atkins step up for us. She’s not a rookie,” Delle Donne said. League MVP Breanna Stewart scored 28 points to lead the Storm, and reserve Sami Whitcomb had 11 crucial points off the bench. “You have to take your hat off to the heart that we had down the stretch. ... We really dug in,” Seattle coach Dan Hughes said. “Watching Sue Bird have the presence in that moment. I played Stewie for the first time 40 minutes, and then you get a player like Sami Whitcomb who trains like no other and was ready for a big moment. So a lot of things that we had to dig to get, and that’s what you’ve got to do to advance. Advance we will.” SEATTLE — A rough day for the Seattle Mariners that began with a clubhouse brawl ended in rugged fashion, too. Long after Mariners shortstop Jean Segura and second baseman Dee Gordon apparently tangled, Baltimore rookie Renato Nunez and the Orioles rallied late for a 5-3 win Tuesday night. The scuffle broke out four hours before the game at Safeco Field. Several players got involved, with catcher Mike Zunino among those trying to break it up. Moments after Gordon politely asked reporters to leave the locker room, the double doors burst open with players shoving and shouting. Most of the Seattle players weren’t around after the game to talk about the incident. “Whatever happens in here, stays in here,” Seattle star Robinson Cano said. “It didn’t affect anyone in here. We let it go. We’re good. Everyone is good. We left that behind.” “We’ve been playing hard,” he said. “It’s a long season. Everyone here gives everything they’ve got.” Cano had three hits, including a home run. Seattle was 46-25 on June 16 and 11 1/2 games ahead of Oakland in the wild-card standings. The Mari- ners are now 77-62 and 5½ games behind the A’s in the chase for the second AL wild-card spot. SCOREBOARD PREP SPORTS SCHEDULE THURSDAY Volleyball — Astoria at Rainier, 6 p.m.; Seaside at North Marion, 7 p.m.; Knappa at Ilwaco, 6:30 p.m.; St. Paul at Jewell, 6 p.m. Girls soccer — Astoria at St. Helens, 7 p.m. Boys soccer — St. Helens at Astoria, 7:15 p.m. FRIDAY Football — Stayton at Astoria, 7 p.m.; Seaside at Marist, 7 p.m.; Knappa at Toledo, 7 p.m.; Creswell at Warrenton, 7 p.m.; Powers at Jewell, 5 p.m.; White Salmon at Ilwaco, 7 p.m. Volleyball — Jewell at Damascus Christian, 6 p.m.