SAINTS ‘SET’ FOR VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFFS

Saints Volleyball clinch spot in championship tournament

The Saints volleyball team faced off against Linn-Benton Community College on Nov. 8, for its last home game of the season. Friends and family filled the stands in their black and red gear to cheer the team on and honor its sophomores for their contributions.

They had good reason to celebrate.

The Saints had some pretty important accomplishments this season as a team and individually, winning always being the main one. With their fifth consecutive win on Nov. 1, defeating Chemeketa Community College, 3-0, the Saints secured their place in the NWAC volleyball championship tournament.

Hoping to expand its winning streak, Mt. Hood, unfortunately for its crowd, lost to Linn-Benton, 3-0.

Back to the high points: This season the ladies were very excited to beat Rogue Community College, the first-place team in the South Region, on Oct. 18. Taking fourth place in the South, the Saints were ranked second for both assists and assists per set, through last week’s contests.

And, after the loss to Linn-Benton, the Saints traveled to Clark College in Vancouver on Tuesday and beat the Penguins, 3-1, in their final regular season match.

Mt. Hood wound up with an overall record of 18-12, including 9-7 in South Region play.

Up next is the Northwest Athletic Conference (NWAC) championship tournament, which will start on Thursday in Tacoma, Washington.

Lea’a Puleiala, the Saints’ outside hitter and team captain, says the 2019 team drastically improved from last year’s season.

“There was a point where we went on a losing streak but that didn’t stop us from working even harder when we came back to practice,” Puleiala said.

Speaking on the team’s behalf, she said it felt like the players were putting hours of work in for nothing, but that head Coach Kristina Crivello and assistant coaches Sierra Veracruz and Amy Jones helped them to see and find their own potential and never give up. What’s more, the Saints are playing together as one and they have each other’s back, on and off the court, she said.

Leading up to and as a result of that ultimate win against Chemeketa, Puleiala received South Region offensive player of the week honors two weeks ago.

In that win over the Storm, she and Zoe Chatterton led the Saints offensively with 19 and 13 kills, respectively.

Although more team awards will be announced at the Saints’ year-end banquet in a couple weeks, freshman Gabby Sanchez and sophomore Kaylynn Pickett received South Region setters of the week honors four times this season.

Advocate Staff