Saints stall, come up short against Storm

On Wednesday night, the Saints dropped three straight sets in their loss to the Chemeketa CC Storm (25-18, 25-20, 25-19).

The frustrating match came days after a successful weekend that saw the Saints defeat both the Southwestern Oregon Lakers and Umpqua Riverhawks.

Saints coach Andrew Clifton gave his thoughts on the tough outing: “Tonight kind of reverted back to what we had been doing earlier in the season,” he said. “A lot of the stuff that happened over the weekend, we stopped doing. We weren’t paying attention to what was going on on the other side of the net.”

Sophomore libero Kiana Miller had similar thoughts on the loss.

“Chemeketa played a consistent game. They came out strong and smart and we didn’t make changes fast enough to get ahead of them,” she said. “We just didn’t come out ready to play our game.”

The Saints are currently 9-15 overall and 2-1 in the Southern Region, following the loss to Chemeketa.

Clifton discussed the importance of bouncing back from the match.

“I told them in the locker room it’s up to them to show up tomorrow to practice and turn this thing around. It’s a long season too, so it’s just a matter of continuing growing and learning from this experience,” he said.

Wednesday’s match did not accurately depict the Saints’ full capacity. Last weekend, they started out NWAC league play with a chip on their shoulder. They took down SW Oregon in four sets (16-25, 25-20, 25-18, 25-20) and then Umpqua in three sets (25-17, 25-22, 25-14).

All the pieces were clicking over the weekend. “(It) was really good for the team, they started to really perform and implement the things that we were doing in practice,” Clifton said. “They started taking ownership of their positions.”

He continued, “They stayed calm and emotionally together and really supported each other.”

Tonight, Mt. Hood looks to get back on track against the Linn-Benton Roadrunners, 16-9 overall and 0-2 in conference play. The Roadrunners have had the upper hand on the Saints this season, defeating them twice in preseason play.

The match begins at 6 p.m. in the MHCC Gymnasium.