Volleyball Dawgs split on road with 4A opponents

A trip to the coast for a three-way non league volleyball match on Sept. 11 resulted in a split for the seventh-ranked Creswell Lady Bulldogs, who bested 4A North Valley 3-1 but fell to host 4A Marshfield 0-3.
Outside hitter Breanna Dapron’s 25 kills, one stuff block and one assisted stuff block led the Lady Dawgs past the North Valley Knights 25-21, 19-25, 25-13 and 25-12.
Fellow outside hitter Bailey Howell added 11 kills, 13 digs, five aces and 12 assists in the win. Jenessa Mallory had three kills, four aces and 25 assists; Kylee Whitson had three kills; Sarah Lanz scooped 11 digs; and Izzy Ramirez had an assisted stuff block.
“It was a good solid game, good competition for us,” said Creswell Head Coach Anna Baltrusch. “I would’ve liked to have seen more blocks, but North Valley ran a lot of quicks and we have some real inexperienced middles who haven’t had a chance to get comfortable there because we’ve played a lot of really tough teams so far.”
Against seventh-ranked Marshfield, the Lady Dawgs fell 5-25, 13-25 and 19-25. “They’re a really solid team with almost all seniors and they didn’t lose anybody from last year,” Baltrusch said of the Pirates. “We beat them last year, but we were a different team last year.”
Despite being down 0-17 in the first set, Creswell played well overall in the match.
“We served them really tough, but they made great passes, so their setter could set quick; they have a really good setter and so many weapons,” Baltrusch said. “Usually when we serve tough we can get teams off-balance, and we got them off-balance a few times – just not enough to compensate for how good servers they were, their setting, and attacking from all over the place.”
This week, Creswell opens league play at La Pine before hosting former league rival Coquille – currently the fourth-ranked 2A team – and competing at the annual Salem Academy Tournament on Saturday.
“Several of the top 3A teams will be at Salem Academy, so we’ll get to see and play some of them, and see where we’re at against some of the best, so we’re looking forward to that,” Baltrusch said.