Saints continue winning streak

By Courtney Hamer

After defeating Oregon Community College, the Mt. Hood women’s volleyball team beat Umpqua Community College Saturday Oct. 14.

The official game scores were 30-10,31-29,30-18 Friday, and 30-9, 30-10, 30-6 Saturday.

With 12 kills each, Beth Perkins and Jamie Richards left UCC scrambling. Jean Rho had 20 assists while Chy Crichton had 17. Rashelle Davenport had three blocks. Jamie Richards served four aces and Brittney Belshe served three.

Lena Chan, Mt. Hood volleyball’s head coach, said the seven freshmen women are getting to know each other. Chan says they are working with the returning four players to learn how to work as a team.

Chan said the players learned they needed to talk more Saturday than they did in Friday’s game. She said the girls started strong then played consistently well the rest of the game. Going into the game Saturday, freshman Kimberly Carter, who came from Woodland High School, played with a sprained ankle from Friday night. Chan said she played very well with her injury. Asked if there were any disappointments at Saturday’s game, Chan said, “No disappointments, smooth game.”

During Friday’s game against SWOCC, the team was challenged with many spikes from opposing player Shalene Christy who had 11 kills, leaving them diving for every ball.

Perkins left SWOCC with 11 kills and three blocks followed by Richards with 10 kills and six blocks. Crichton helped the team with 26 assists. Belshe and Kimberly Carter both had 16 digs each.

The Saints were behind by a point almost the entire second game, but were able to beat them 31-29.

There were even some out-of-town visitors at Saturday’s game. A Washington youth volleyball team came to watch the Saints and participated at half time to win prizes. The team then got to speak with Chan after the game.

Chan said the reason Mt. Hood has such a good volleyball team is because the women are disciplined and they are here because they are training for the universities.