Document text
Eagles soar to upset of North By TIM PYLE The Southern Oregon Conference has already turned upside down. On the opening night of the league season Tuesday, Eagle Point shocked defending champion North Medford with a 15-12, 15-11 victory in North's gym. After finishing in a tie for sixth place with a 3-11 mark last season, the Eagles are off and running under third-year coach Lisa Hutchins. "By far, by far," Hutchins said when asked if the win was her biggest at Eagle Point. "Nothing else has even come close. Not to mention, I'm an ex-Tornado myself, so it's kind of nice." The Black Tornado, 14-0 in SOC play a season ago, was unable to hold leads of 12-9 in Game 1 and 11-5 in Game 2. The Eagles scored the final six points to take the opener and rattled off 10 straight to complete the sweep. "We knew that we could do it," said junior setter Aubrey Harrington, a third-year varsity player who earned honorable mention all-SOC last year. "I tell my girls not to look at the scoreboard, and if we just play it one point at a time and do what we have to do, we'll get it back." Eighth-year North coach Ron Beick said the result could foreshadow a wild SOC season. "Lisa made the comment that she felt the league as a whole was fairly well-balanced," said Beick, who lost four first-team all-conference performers from his 2000 squad. "And I don't think that'll be unusual for there to be a lot of different wins and losses for different teams." Harrington's setting, the serving of senior defensive specialist K.C. Grieve and kills from outside hitters Dani Rouhier, a senior, and Jackie Shelton, a sophomore, were key ingredients in Eagle Point's winning recipe. Senior middle hitter Kara Stuart, the third of the Eagles' three seniors, also stood out both ways. Hutchins thinks her team may have made school history. "It's a huge win for us," she said. "I don't know if we've ever beaten a Tornado team in volleyball. ... I doubt it." Hutchins and Harrington both believe limited success last season and in club ball against North helped pave the way for Tuesday's monumental upset. "My girls have been confident," said Hutchins, whose squad was picked to finish seventh in an SOC preseason coaches' poll. "I think it helped taking a game from them last year. They knew that if they showed up and played to their ability, there was a possibility we were gonna come home with a win." The Black Tornado may have dropped its first league match since 1999, but Beick didn't see anything that can't be corrected as the season progresses. "We are inexperienced, and that showed," said Beick, whose team was tabbed second behind Roseburg in the preseason poll. "We were leading in both games, and when we got into crunch time, we got a little conservative with our attack. "Offensively, we missed key serves, and defensively, we missed passes. That's the sign of a young team." And Tuesday night, Beick readily admitted, Eagle Point was the better team. "It's a big upset," he said. "They've got very strong balance. And I think mentally they're tougher at this point in the season than we are." Reach reporter Tim Pyle at 776-4483 or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.