Volleyball: Oregon converts emotion to energy to top Newman on Senior Night

OREGON – Senior Night carries with it many emotions, some exciting and some sad, and teams react differently to it.

The Oregon Hawks reacted as well as they could have hoped in their final home match of the season on Thursday night, taking control from the start in a 25-13, 25-18 win over Newman at the Blackhawk Center.

“It was mostly the thought of it’s our Senior Night and we’ve got to win, so that emotion really did play a role, and that energy carried us to the win,” senior middle Liz Mois said. “We played with energy, we communicated, and hitting errors were at a minimum for us. They were actually a career low for our team tonight, so that was awesome.”

The two teams had just met on Saturday at the Linda Ludwig Tournament in Lanark, with Newman winning the pool-play match 23-21, 21-16. The Hawks (19-10) felt they were close in that match and didn’t play as well as they wanted, so they were looking for a little redemption on Thursday.

“Senior Night helped a lot, gave us a big boost. Most of the starters that we had on the court were seniors, so we all had extra energy,” senior hitter Ava Wight said. “And we lost to Newman in the Eastland tournament this past weekend, so we needed revenge, basically – and with it being our Senior Night, so it was the perfect time to do it.”

A back-row kill by Wight and a tip-kill from Mois gave Oregon a quick 4-1 lead in the opening set, then after Newman got within 5-4 on a Jess Johns kill and a perfectly placed dump kill by Katie Grennan, Wight hit a roll shot for a kill to spark a run.

Kenna Wubbena followed with a kill, then Lexi Ebert served an ace before spiking a kill, and Wight followed with a spike for an 11-5 lead. Mariah Drake and Anna Withers had kills before a Sophie Stender ace, and a kill and block by Mois around a Newman error made it 19-7 Hawks.

“We worked on it in practice yesterday, just mixing a lot of things up,” Wight said about the balanced attack. “We’re obviously not the tallest team, so we need to hit smarter and be mentally in the game on where we place the ball.”

Grennan had a kill and Sophia Ely served an ace for Newman, then after Oregon kills by Wight and Jennica Ciesel, Grennan served back-to-back aces to get within 21-12. But a Wight ace and three hitting errors over the last five points closed the first set.

A Wight kill, a Mois block and three Newman errors staked the Hawks to a 5-0 lead in the second set, and kills by Ciesel and Drake pushed it to 7-2. Johns ripped a kill, and two Oregon errors cut the Newman deficit to 7-5.

The teams traded points for a while, as Wubbena spiked a kill for Oregon, then Johns had one for the Comets, followed a tip-kill from Wight for a 10-7 Oregon lead. Grennan had a tip-kill and back-row kill in a three-point span, then Kennedy Rowzee answered a Mois kill with a stuff block, and Johns spiked a kill to get within 14-12.

A dump kill by Olivia Wynn and a kill from Wubbena stretched the lead back to 16-12, then Johns had a kill a little later to cut it back to 18-16. But a kill from Withers sparked a mini-run for the Hawks, and Wynn and Mois answered a Rowzee spike with kills of their own for a 23-18 lead. Wight served an ace, then Wubbena closed it out with a kill.

“They’re an athletic team, and they played with a lot of energy. The first game got us right out of system, we didn’t respond well, and our girls didn’t play with energy today,” Newman coach Debbi Kelly said. “We did not play aggressively and take out-of-system balls and make them better, make them into points for us like we’re normally doing.”

Wight led Oregon with 11 digs, six kills, 11 points and two aces, and Mois had four kills and two blocks. Wubbena spiked five kills, Wynn had nine assists and two kills, and Ebert finished with 10 assists, three digs and an ace. Stender chipped in 11 digs, nine points, two assists and an ace, and Drake, Withers and Ciesel each added two kills.

“The thought that we didn’t want to lose tonight really helped us, and really taking that energy over helps us immensely,” Mois said. “It’s something we have been down in the dumps with, kind of, but this match kick-started it, and I think it’s going to carry over in the matches to come.”

Johns had seven kills and seven digs, and Grennan finished with five digs, four kills, three assists and two aces for Newman. Rowzee had four kills and a block, Molly Olson added 11 digs and 10 assists, and Addison Foster finished with seven digs. Sam Ackman chipped in five digs and four points.

“We had just played them Saturday and beat them, but we didn’t make adjustments throughout the game that we normally would be doing,” Kelly said. “We’re going to use this to get ready for postseason. It’s not the way we want to end the season, and we’ve got to get better this next week before regionals.”