By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

STAYTON, Ore.–  It wasn’t the way the Stayton Volleyball team had hoped their season would’ve started, but it’s a starting point following Marist’s 25-16, 25-21, 25-15 sweep of the Eagles at Stayton High School to open the season.

“Definitely talking.  Talking to each other and getting to know each other better, trusting each other is a big deal for us,” said Lydia Bielenberg.

The squad features eight sophomores with girls like Bielenberg, Mercedes Comstock and Molly Schotthoefer returning from Stayton’s 8-13, 4A State Play-In squad.  Bielenberg and Schottoefer each had four kills, Kenzi Hollenbeck too had four kills as Kaley Sutton led the squad with five kills in the season and home opener.  Bielenberg led the team with five assists and Aubrey Hall contributed another four as the second set proved to be their best set of the match.

Rallying from several points down, the Eagles rallied to take a 13-12 lead on the Spartans before Marist pulled ahead 23-19.  Stayton pulled back to within two as all the little things for the young squad was on-par and clicking as they hoped to stay with the Marist team that they were playing with.  Overall the set proved to be a set for them to build from as they officially kick off the season.

“Everyone was cheering, everyone was happy.and I feel like one little mistake kind of brings it down and we need to be the opposite of it.  We need to push it aside and lift each other up.    That’s what we need to do, we need to brush it off.  We need to brush it off and be like ‘next play’.  We’ll definitely take this game to take it and use it as a good lesson for our next games moving forward for the rest of the year,” Bielenberg said.

Stayton will have plenty of opportunities to build from this game as the Eagles travel to Molalla Tuesday before hosting Elmira on Thursday to close out the week. 

Photos By Jeremy McDonald