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Siskiyou netters off to a blazing
start
By Rob McCallum
The golden hills and vast vineyards of wine country can bring the best
out of many visitors. And for the College of the Siskiyous volleyball
team, visits to Ukiah bring out many wins.
The Eagles won the annual Mendocino Tournament in impressive fashion,
going 5-0 in pool and bracket play. It marked the team's first tournament
win since 2002, also at Mendocino. Even in last season's injury-plagued,
3-6 campaign, the Eagles placed second at Mendocino.
"We've had pretty good luck on that side of the hill," said
coach Tom Powers. "We went through it all and came home winners."
Freshman Shannon Richardson was named tournament MVP, the first for
COS in recent history. Setter Deanna Kaniaupio was also named to the
all-tournament team.
Powers praised freshman middle blocker Katie Pendley for her play in
Ukiah.
The toughest challenge COS received on Saturday was in their opener
against Canada. The teams split the first two sets before the Eagles
won the tiebreaker, 15-12.
Siskiyous then routed their next two opponents to win their pool. They
defeated Columbia 30-13, 30-14 and San Francisco City 30-18, 30-16.
In the championship bracket, COS routed Solano 30-10 in the opening
set but had to win a 30-26 set for the win. They defeated SFCC for the
second time in the championship match, 30-15, 30-27.
"They're getting a little more consistent," Powers said. "Tournaments
are a whole different deal from match play. We started at 8:30 in the
morning and didn't get out of the gym until 8:30 that night, so it's
an extremely long day. We did a good job of staying on track and focused."
The Eagles began the weekend with a nonconference match against host
Mendocino on Friday night. COS won three sets by the score of 30-25.
Mendocino extended the match to four sets with a 32-30 win in the third
set.
"We played a pretty even match," Powers said. "They are
a pretty good team and now we're undefeated in match play."
Siskiyous is 2-0 on the season in match play and 8-3 in
tournaments.
On Saturday, COS makes its home debut and inaugurates the first annual
Siskiyou Classic tournament. The Eagles will host Napa at 10 a.m. and
Sierras at 1 p.m. Lassen will play Sierras then Napa at Weed High School.
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