By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SALEM, Ore.–  The Ladies of McKay are taking a break from their Greater Valley Conference action to host their own tournament Saturday at McKay High School.

Teams like Woodburn, Dallas, Hood River to name a few that came to the Home of The Royal Scots.

“”It’s really cool,” said Gaby Santoyo.  “Normally for us we have tournaments in Springfield, Dallas, far away and seeing different players coming over here, all around our gym, it’s really cool.  It’s so nice.”

Though they went 2-2, defeating Woodburn (25-13, 25-17) and Milwaukie (25-21, 25-9).

They competed hard in the losses against Hood River, the second match of the 25-11. 28-26 sweep, McKay forced overtime versus a Eagles team that won the Columbia River Conference in 2015 and pushed Dallas hard in the 25-18, 25-6 match and finishing third in their tournament.

“Teams like Hood River and like Dallas, they are top teams in their league,” said Head Coach Scott Coons “For us to get that experience to play against them, it’s like playing in our own conference and it really gives our girls the opportunity to grow.

“This is the best we’ve played so far this season.  In fact, I’d say it’s the best we played in the last two seasons.  The girls started to find a rhythm, they started to communicate better.  All those things we’re teaching them, they’re starting to develop and grow into.  And we’re really young, so this bows well for our future.”

Coons knows how important hosting an event is this to the community of Northeast Salem and McKay.

It illustrates the Scots young, and up-and-coming program and shows the community that they are here and to come out and support the girls every week.

“It is really awesome, to see our whole program come out and be supportive and all the fan base, parents coming out to support this program is a huge boost,” said Coons.  “It gets our name out to our community, it gets other team’s understanding, ‘hey we’re a viable part of the community’.  So it was awesome.”

As the Dragons and Eagles battle for the Championship, the Scots (2-3) know that they can carry this foundation, this momentum, knowing that they faced similar talent to that of West Salem in teams like Hood River and Dallas.

“It’s a good practice getting to see other teams and knowing that, ‘hey we made Hood River compete,” said Santoyo.  “I feel like we are prepared as a team.”

“Getting the experience with Hood River, how I said how they are up to our competitive level in our league.  It gave us good practice digging up those hard balls, feeling the actual competition that is going to be this season because we only have one game and having this tournament really prepared us because I already feel like we’ve already played for a month.”

The McKay Lady Scots will be back to action Tuesday up in McMinnville when they take on both West Albany and host-McMinnville.  The game against the Bulldogs is at 5:15p and the game against the Grizzlies is at 6:30p.

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Photos by Jeremy McDonald