HS Volleyball: Jesuit crushes Beaverton Friday, September 14, 2007

Action, reaction: Jesuit senior Erin Kilroy makes a kill (left) and celebrates (right) Sept. 13 as the Crusaders dominated Beaverton 25-4, 25-8, 25-10 in OSAA volleyball action.

I went out to Beaverton last night to shoot the girls volleyball game between Beaverton High School and the no. 1-ranked Jesuit Crusaders.

I knew the Crusaders would be good, but I didn't know what to expect from the Beavers.

It had been a long time since I watched a high school volleyball game, but I remembered a fairly high level of play. So as I watched the Beavers go through their spiking drill before the game, I was a bit disappointed: the sets were hit-and-miss and most of the girls couldn't jump over the net, so the attacks were more like passes than kills.

Then Jesuit took the floor.

I could tell right away that the contest would be rather one-sided. These girls were taller, more athletic, and more confident. Pretty much all of them could get their shoulders over the net. The sets were consistently accurate. And they moved as a team.

It was all over in 55 minutes. The score at the end of the game: Jesuit def. Beaverton, 25-4*, 25-8, 25-10.

Jesuit did show a bit of weakness late in the third game. With all of their starters on the bench, the Crusaders gave up half a dozen mad, scrambling points to the Beavers. But in the end, even Jesuit's second line was more than Beaverton could handle.

Beaverton's Nicole Sugihara (left) and Eunice Ahn both go for the ball without success Thursday against Jesuit. The Beavers spent most of the match chasing deadly kills from the Crusaders' front line.









*The Oregonian is reporting a score of 25-6 in this game. My photo of the scoreboard showed 25-4.