Document text
PREP VB: South Medford earns historic victory By Mail Tribune staff Updated: Oct 29, 2022 08:28 PM A A South Medford made volleyball history on Saturday, and it most certainly didn’t come easy. In a back-and-forth battle that took all the fortitude the sixth-seeded Panthers could muster, they were able to fend off perennial state contender Central Catholic for a four-set victory that clinched South Medford’s first-ever trip to the final state tournament site. South Medford (23-6) won 25-19, 22-25, 25-20, 25-19 over the visiting No. 11 Rams (18-10), who boast six state titles and 19 championship game appearance in their illustrious history. “They have a history of making it to the state championships and they weren’t going to hand it over to us, that’s for sure,” said Panthers head coach Robin Akpan. “They played us really tough.” After winning the first set, South Medford had a costly late lull in the second set to tie things up. The third set proved to be a nerve-wracking affair but the Panthers were able to gain the key late points necessary to retake the lead and, in the fourth set, South Medford rallied from a 6-1 deficit and again held strong at the end to clinch the historic victory. Wednesday’s first-round win over Liberty was South’s first state playoff win since 2004, so Saturday found the Panthers in rare territory. “It’s a big accomplishment for the girls and for the program,” said Akpan. “It’s so fun for them to get to play into November. I think it’s a really big deal and they didn’t get to walk into it, they had to run into it tonight. It was great see them play hard and reach their goals against a very strong team.” Katie Clevenger paced South Medford with 22 kills, 12 digs, three blocks and two aces, while freshman middle Mayen Akpan came up huge with 10 kills and one block and senior middle Naomi Johnson had six kills, five blocks and three aces. Brooke Johnston added six kills and nine digs and Lola Horton had five kills and three blocks for the Panthers, who open Class 6A state tournament play Friday against Southwest Conference rival Sheldon in Forest Grove. “I didn’t see us look back at all today,” said coach Akpan. “We were looking forward to the next play and the next point. We talked about earning all of our points today and I just think they did a great job with that. We had so many rallies that went back and forth with block and cover that we came out on the top on so many times when we needed today.” WILSONVILLE 3, EAGLE POINT 0: At Wilsonville, Addison Holcomb had four kills and 19 digs and Abby Trautman added three kills, 15 digs and two blocks for Eagle Point in the 5A state playoff opener but top-seeded Wilsonville proved too much in a 25-15, 25-16, 25-7 victory. Emma Kness provided four kills and 15 digs while Megan Carr had three kills and three blocks for the Eagles (10-10). Makynlee Schauffler finished with 14 assists, Baylee Mullen had four kills and Jaylinn Holte added 18 digs for against Wilsonville (27-0). ST. MARY’S 3, SCIO 0: Senior Kelsey Dunn recorded 16 kills to lead eighth-seeded St. Mary’s to a straight-set win over No. 9 Scio, 25-23, 25-20, 25-13, in the second round of the Class 3A state playoffs. With the win, St. Mary’s (19-5) advanced to its first state tournament since 2010, when the Crusaders finished as state runner-up. St. Mary’s will face top-seeded Sisters (24-4) at 1:15 p.m. on Friday in Springfield. Emma Johnston finished with 12 kills and 13 digs, while Kaitlyn Hansen recorded 39 assists. Albie Borovansky had 15 digs, while Sydney Alexander finished with three aces and was 16-for-17 from the service line and Ada Bernard added six kills. Scio, which was second in the PacWest Conference, finishes the season 16-7 overall. HORIZON CHRISTIAN 3, CASCADE CHRISTIAN 2: At Tualatin, No. 13-seed Cascade Christian won the opening two sets but couldn’t finish off fourth-seeded Horizon Christian in a five-set heartbreaker, 22-25, 19-25, 25-20, 25-22, 15-11, in the second round of the Class 3A state playoffs. Madison Todd had 23 kills, 12 digs and three aces and Poppy Freeman supplied 17 kills for Cascade Christian (17-10), which made some key errors and missed serves at inopportune moments as Horizon Christian (20-4) raised its intensity level. Molly Griffin provided 47 assists and 11 digs and Claire Knips had seven kills for the Challengers. South Medford's Mayen Akpan, shown in action Wednesday, played a key role in Saturday’s win over Central Catholic with 10 kills. [Andy Atkinson / Mail Tribune]