Volleyball finishes off Grays Harbor Tourney strong

This past weekend, the Saints finished the two-day Grays Harbor tournament with a winning record of (3-3) and a consolation bracket final victory.

Mt. Hood began its tourney against the eventual tourney champ Wenatchee Valley. The Knights outplayed the Saints, taking the match in a three sets (25-19,17-25,15-10).

In game two, the Saints played in a best of three match against tournament host Grays Harbor. Mt. Hood lost in two sets (25-22, 25-18).

The Saints finished off day one on a positive note, defeating Shoreline (25-23, 24-26, 15-13).

Day two was the stronger of the two days for MHCC. They started off the day in a hard fought best of five match against Pierce College. The Pierce Raiders outlasted the Saints (20-25,25-17,20-25,25-18,17-15 ).

Mt. Hood continued their strong play in game two, winning in convincing fashion over Umpqua (25-12,25-17).

The win over Umpqua advanced the Saints to the consolation final round against Shoreline.

The best of three match began with a lengthy first set. The Saints were able to pull away late in the set winning (32-30). Mt. Hood went on to win the second set and match (25-20).

Head Coach Andrew Clifton discussed day one of tourney play, “The first day was a lot of up and downs, we played good and bad, we just had a tendency to give up to many points. On the first day we averaged 68 percent of the opponents points; that was a tough part. But the lighter side is that were earning 65 percent of our points.”

Clifton continued: “Were playing great but were also allowing teams to score. That’s been the focus this week is to eliminate the unforced errors and try to get them down under 50 percent. If we do that and were scoring 65 percent of our points then mathematically we’ll probably beat a lot of teams.”

Clifton later went on to discuss the toughness the Saints showed on day two.

Sophomore right side hitter Devin Saucy had a phenomenal tournament. She was named to the all-tournament team after a big performance against Pierce College.

“Devin did really well against Pierce offensively and she actually put them in a very  compromised position, she was a major reason why  we were able to kind of keep it going so long.”

Tonight at 6 p.m. the Saints play against the Umpqua Riverhawks on sophomore night in the main Gymnasium. The Saints have had the upper hand on Riverhawks this year, defeating Umpqua twice this season.

The Saints also play SW Oregon, a team they beat earlier in the season, tomorrow afternoon at 1 p.m.