By Jeremy McDonald

jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com

SILVERTON, Ore.–  Silverton senior Lindsay Schmidt had a daunting task filling in for Alexis Haury in Thursday’s Mid-Willamette Conference match-up with Corvallis at Silverton High School.  Haury, who’s recovering from an ankle injury, had helped Schmidt prepare for the opportunity Wednesday during practice and it worked as Schmidt had helped the Foxes in their 25-15, 25-20, 25-20 victory over the Spartans.

“It didn’t feel too much (pressure) because she really helped prepare me during practice yesterday and even the night before (against West Albany) she really helped prepare me,” said Schmidt of Haury.”She’s a great teacher and she always helped me through it all.  We were on the sidelines and she helped me with sets and everything.  It didn’t seem too much of a challenge and the girls really helped me.”

Schmidt had 26 assists setting for the squad in the victory as the game itself felt like another example of Silverton just finding ways to win ball games as following their decisive first set, the Foxes fell behind to Corvallis 16-12 and had to rally late.  Chipping away at the deficit before tying it at 17 and continuing their momentum to the finish line of the set.

“It’s really big and we’ve been working on being disciplined and staying disciplined throughout, so I feel like that’s another good test for us going into next week that we know that we can fight back and win a game,” Rowan Reilly said, who had eight kills in the win.

“It definitely better prepared us and got our reps in.  Tomorrow we’re definitely going to go hard in practice and so on Monday.  But we’re excited for it,” adds Schmidt of Thursday’s game. 

Silverton took that momentum into the third set and endured a late set rally from the Sparts to end the match in three and not anymore with the Foxes improving to 11-1 on the season and 6-0 in MWC-play going into Tuesday’s big game with Crescent Valley on the road. The Raiders are 7-1 on the year and 5-0 in league play going into their meeting in a few days.

Photos By Jeremy McDonald