Matched up against Mt. Hood at home, the Umpqua RiverHawks notched another victory on Saturday, Oct. 20. Umpqua was able to win in three straight sets, and scores were 25-14, 25-22, 25-21 in Umpqua’s favor.
Saturday’s win marked Umpqua’s 12th of the season, bringing their current record to 12 wins and 15 loses.
Umpqua came into Saturday’s match against Mt. Hood looking for a spark on offense to help snap a two-game losing streak in which the RiverHawk’s offense struggled to score points.
“Going into Mt. Hood we came ready; we had a lot of excitement, and we were focused. We knew we needed to work hard and come together,” team captain Emma Lind said.
Despite recent struggles in earlier games, Umpqua’s offense got back on track against Mt. Hood, dominating the first set by a score of 25-14.
Mt. Hood was then able to take back some momentum during the second period, which saw them in the lead for the majority of the set, only to see Umpqua rally at the end for a 25-22 set victory.
Needing to take one more set to clinch the win, the RiverHawk’s offense put away Mt. Hood 25-21 and ultimately won the match 3-0 sweep.
“Our offense knew we needed to come out strong and ready to put the ball away, and our defense came in ready to dig every ball that came on our side; we were not going to let the ball drop,” Lind said.
With the season nearing its end, the RiverHawks will look to take advantage of their schedule which has them playing at home for three out of their last five games. The win against Mt. Hood was the spark they were hoping for and a culmination of the hard work they’ve put into the season thus far, according to Emma Lind: “At the beginning of the season our chemistry was rough, but we are stronger than ever now. Our team will use this win to remind us that we can do anything. For practice this week we are going to work very hard to prepare us for our next match,” Lind explained.
With five matches left in the regular season, Umpqua will look to carry the momentum from their recent victory as they prepare to take on Chemeketa at home. That match will take place at Umpqua Community College’s gym on Oct. 26 at 6:30 p.m. •