HOPE — The Class A No. 5-ranked Hauser volleyball team walked onto the court wearing its pink jerseys against Trinity Lutheran on Thursday for its Coaches vs. Cancer Night.
The team collected donations from the crowd before starting the game, which ended in 25-22, 25-16, 25-18 victory. Jets coach Jeff Case said using volleyball games is an awesome opportunity to help raise money for cancer awareness, especially for the girls to learn about giving and raising money for good causes.
“It’s just huge,” Case said. “Everybody has been affected by cancer, so it’s just a great opportunity for us to help someone out.”
The Cougars (10-11) kept it close with Hauser (21-3) in the first set. Trinity trailed the entire set, but scored five of the last eight points before falling three points short of taking the one-set lead.
The Jets took an early 5-1 lead in the second set, and the Cougars could not find a way to recover.
Hauser pulled away for a 20-13 lead in the third set, but Trinity didn’t go away easily. It scored five straight points to cut the lead to 21-18. The Jets closed the match by scoring the final four points.
“That third set, we started to loosen up a little bit, and they got on a run,” Case said. “A team like that, you give them a chance, and they’re going to get back in the game. They are a well-coached team and a very good team. I really respect them a lot.”
Sydney Schoen led Hauser with 10 kills and 16 digs. Alana Owen recorded 20 assists and matched Sarah Tedder with 10 digs. Tedder, Hannah Johnson and Madie Sherman all had three blocks.
The Jets have not lost a single set during their four-game winning streak.
“We just all have a love for the game and don’t want to lose,” Tedder said. “We all pump each other up and keep going and never give up. That’s really what keeps us going and we have a great coaching staff on the sideline that keeps us going all of the time.”
Hannah Sabotin led Trinity with 11 kills, and Abby Schult added five and Bailey Reynolds had three. Sydney Jaynes served two aces, and Chloe Criswell led the team in digs with 16. Ashley Goecker also had 14 digs, while Courtney Barker recorded 27 assists.
“We didn’t really play to our potential, so that was the frustrating thing,” Trinity coach Chelsea Stroub said. “Our serve-receive was a little bit of everywhere. We just weren’t moving our feet, so then we just couldn’t run anything. Whenever we had a good pass, though, we normally could run our offense. I was pleased with that.”
