By Jeremy McDonald

SALEM, Ore.–  With how talented this Perrydale team is entering this season, there was really no real concern when Bailey Savage went down last Monday in the Pirates sweeps of Gaston and Delphian that they won’t be able to compete as they have been this season.

It’ll be a challenge yes not having the six-two Junior out on the court, but as they showed Tuesday night at Livingstone Adventist Academy when they defeated Willamette Valley Christian 25-19, 25-16, 19-25, 25-18 that they’ll be just fine in their third win without Savage.

“We’re obviously better with Bailey because we’re used to playing as a whole team.  But we can definitely play just as good without her, we just have a lack of communication and that’s what killed us tonight.  Just the lack of communication,” said Dakota Lawrence.

With St. Paul in a week, Perrydale knows they’ll need to work on that entering next Tuesday’s matchup at St. Paul sharper on the communication aspect of the game.

“Our whole thing that we keep messing up on is lack of communication.  We let all the hard balls hit the ball because we think the person next to us is going to get it and that’s what kills us.  Teams hit right in between us, we think ‘oh she’ll get it’ and we don’t, so we need to communicate and get the ball.  Just be aggressive

During this Tuesday’s match, yes communication did help the Warriors made runs in the first two sets, but their youthful fight helped keep Willamette Valley Christian close.  The Pirates would pulled away in the first set and nine miscues by the Warriors after getting to 13-11 in the second set aided in Perrydale’s two sets-to-none start.

With one Senior on their team in Delaney Barnes, who along with Lally Hunter, helped build some momentum leading into the third set where Willamette Valley Christian turned an 10-8 deficit into a 22-16 lead on the fifth-ranked team in 1A.  The Warriors fend off Perrydale to push the match to four sets.

“It’s a great learning experience, ready to build off of it.  (Perrydale’s) a smart team so we had to really strive to outsmart.  They had a lot of short tips, so we really had to scrape to go out and compete against that,” said Warriors Head Coach Elisa Hunter.  “Great for us to have that challenge of smart with our hits as well as attacking.”

At 4-6, Willamette Valley Christian’s sitting a half-game behind Jewell for fourth-place in league with four games remaining in the regular season.  Perrydale, who finished up the day 8-2, are in a two-way tie with Crosshill Christian for second-place in league.

Both the Pirates and Eagles are two games behind 10-0 St. Paul in the Casco League Standings as Perrydale came out firing at all cylinders to start the fourth set as Lawrence had two early kills.

Nathalie Juarez continued to set-up her offense as the Lawrence twins of Kenzy and Syndey, Megan Freeborn and Sydney Oak helped the Pirates to a 7-3 start to the set and held a 16-11 lead over the scrappy Warrior squad in front of them to close out Monday’s match.

“We were really upset that they got a set off us because we knew they shouldn’t have,” said Dakota Lawrence on the fourth set win.

The Warriors will host C.S. Lewis Academy Thursday at the Salem First Baptisit Church off of Marion Street.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald