Posted Friday October 24, 2008

HERMISTON - The Heppner Mustangs and Weston-McEwen TigerScotts of the 2A Blue Mountain League travelled to Hermiston for a match which would decide who would be the top seed in the district tournament. The tie breaking match at the neutral site of Hermiston High School was needed because the teams were tied in their win loss records. Heppner swept the match with set scores of 25-16, 19-25 and 25-17.

The Hermiston High School gym was nearly filled with supports of both teams. For some, Weston-McEwen may have been the favorite coming into the match. The Tiger-Scotts were rated number three and the Mustangs number four in the coaches poll released on October 21. In the prior weeks poll W-M was number two and Heppner tied at number five.

A Heppner fan, Erin Price, wore a tshirt that had "Mustangs are as tight as their spandex" printed on it. That sentiment accurately described the team play of the Mustangs during the match. Mustangs including Lenka Dobosova, Brandi Hong, Kathryn Strouse, JoAnna Patton, Maggie Armato, Taighler Dougherty, Lindsay Cutsforth, and Sherilyn Peck worked like fine tuned race car. The team's setups and ball play set up great front line play including dominating kill shots.

Weston-McEwen was designated the home team and Heppner was the visitor for this special match.

Heppner started off serving in the first set. In the opening moments the Mustangs went to a 6-1 lead. Lenka Dobosova, an exchange student from Slovakia, got warmed with her first kill of the night. The Tigerscotts did close to 5-7. Jessica Hughes took the service for Heppner at 10-6 and went on a six point run including an ace which gave the Mustangs a 16-6 lead. During the last few minutes of the set Dobosova turned up the heat on the Tigerscotts with two kills and an offensive block. Peck closed out the set with a kill to give the Mustangs a 25-16 win.

The second set started off with nice serving by Brandi Hong and Lenka Dobosova had two offensive blocks and two kills. The Mustangs lead was 10-4 by that point of the second set. The Tigerscotts would get a side out but would immediately turn the serve back to Heppner. The Tigerscotts did put a run together going from 12-20 to 16-20. From that point on the Mustangs outscored the Tigerscotts five to three to take the second set 25-19.

The third set started off with the Mustangs roaring out of the blocks like they were going crush the Tigerscotts. Heppner was ahead 6-1 when the Tigerscotts started to chip away at the Mustangs' lead. The Tigerscotts' Morgan Entze started serving with a score of 5-9 and W-M was able to tie it up at 9-9 when the Mustangs took the sideout. The teams exchanged leads to 11-11 then the Tigerscotts stretched the lead out to 13-11 lead. It was starting to look like maybe the Mustangs had gone flat or maybe the Tigerscotts had caught fire. It's not unusual to see a team let up after winning two sets. But Heppner didn't let up. The Mustangs closed to 13-13 on a kill by Dobosova. When the serve came back to Heppner the Mustangs came alive again. With Maggie Armato serving and Dobosova hitting three kills and an offensive block went on an eight point run to take a 21-14 lead. Lenka Dobosova hit a powerfull kill to get the side out at 22-17. The serve rotated to Dobosova of the Mustangs at that point. So Dobosova, a dominating front line player served for the final three points that the Mustangs needed for the big win over Weston-McEwen.

The Heppner crowd went wild and streamed out onto the court to congratulate the Mustangs. Hugs, cheers and high fives were exchanged. The team and students went across the court to where most of the Heppner parents were sitting. A group cheer took place and then the players had a chance to talk.

"Go MUSTANGS!" Followed by a hearty scream was shouted out by a group of about eight Heppner high school students standing near the Mustang bench.

Brandi Hong, the junior libero, was all smiles following the match. "It's amazing. It's been eleven years since we've done anything like this. The team unity is great. We just go out there and play together. It feels great."

"Lenka is such a good hitter and she has really improved our team. She is one of our biggest assets. We are very confident going into the match on Saturday. This year is our year."

Lenka Dobosova is a senior foreign exchange student from Slovakia. She grew up playing a lot of volleyball in her home country. "When I was a third grader I started with the basics - bump, set, and hit."

"I love this team. We all play with our hearts. We all support each other. Nobody wants to be better than the others. We all want to play together. That's what I like about this team."

"It was awsome!" said Maggie Armato. "We all got together and played well." Armato is another Heppner senior who has played volleyball since third grade. Her run of serve in the third set which gave the Mustangs the lead is not unusual. "We have a really good rotation. I get it back and then we just kill it. It's really great."

Heppner will play Saturday in Enterprise.

Photos by Terry Aichele