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Black Tornado outlasts Crater, nails down playoff berth By JOE ZAVALA It was the last home match for the North Medford seniors, and they wanted to make it count. And last. In a match that featured 42 sideouts in the second game alone, the Black Tornado scored five of the final six points to outlast streaking Crater, 15-13, 11-15, 15-11, Tuesday, at the Lacey Athletic Center. "We've had some bumps, ups and downs, but tonight we really pulled through," said North Medford senior middle hitter Rachele Treger, who contributed seven kills. "We wanted to end our last game with a strong win." Mission accomplished. The Southern Oregon Conference victory clinched the Tornado (11-10, 7-6 SOC) at least a fourth-place conference finish and a berth in the Class 4A state playoffs with one SOC match remaining. Crater (12-7, 9-4 SOC), meanwhile, fell to third place, but can still finish second with a home win over Ashland on Thursday. "North played just awesome defense tonight, and that really made the difference," Crater coach Leaf Jensen said. "Our passing was pretty bad start to finish, and it just kept us off the net a lot (and) it kept us from running our middle as much as we like to. Our passing just really stopped us." The Comets never took the lead in the deciding game but were tied or within one most of the way. Then, with the game tied at 10, Stacey Casebier, who finished with seven kills and 16 digs, delivered a kill to give North an 11-10 lead. Two sideouts later, Tornado setter Candace Fleener blocked Erin Kinney's attempted spike to the floor to make it 12-10. Another Tornado kill followed by a lift call gave North its first match point at 14-10. Crater got the sideout, but only managed one more point on a Tornado lift before giving the ball back. North then clinched the victory when sophomore Laura Tarkon blocked Addie Wiersma at the net. The kill block set off a wild Tornado celebration. "We really wanted to win," Treger said. "And we were saying we aren't going to let the ball go over us, we're going to get this up, we're going to put it away and we aren't going to let them take this away from us." Tornado coach Ron Beick said his team played its most complete match of the season. "I was really pleased with how well we competed," he said. "This is by far our best match for three straight games. We've played great one game at a time, but not always putting two or three together, so again, this is a step up." Senior middle Nicholette LeBel led Crater with 16 kills, followed by Erin Kinney, who had 13. Also for the Comets, senior setter Sarah Yager had a team-high 34 assists. North Medford was led by Chaley Higgins' 13 kills on 25 attempts, while Amy Bakker added nine kills. Fleener also was a big factor, leading the team with 41 assists. "Every team's kind of different," Beick said. "Not every team is great in the beginning and what you look at as a coach is, can you take them from Point A to Point B. "These girls have done that. They've really stepped up." Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.