Central Oregonian

Rimrock second at MLK

Nationals squad takes second in 56-team field, other teams also have success

Lon Austin

January 31, 2013

The Rimrock 18s National OVA volleyball team is quickly becoming a powerhouse.

The team finished 38th at last year’s national tournament. Now, despite having eight new players on the roster, the team isn’t missing a beat.

“We’re playing amazing volleyball,” said head coach Joel Kent. “Makayla Lindburg and Hannah Troutman are our anchors, but everyone has a role and everyone does it well.”

Playing against the top teams from Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, the Rimrock Nationals squad recently came away with second place at the Oregon MLK Classic.

“That was a good tournament,” Lindburg said. “I didn’t think that we would play that well this early in the season, but we did.”

The Nationals squad cruised through pool play at the 56-team tournament, going 6-0 and not dropping a set.

Once in the gold bracket, the team rolled over Clark County Juniors (Washington) 25-17, 25-12 to reach the tournament quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Rimrock knocked off Cowlitz 18-1 ASICS 25-18, 25-20.

In the semifinals, the Nationals squad was seriously tested by BOSS 18-1s, a team from Tangent, Ore.

Rimrock lost the first set of the match 25-21 before rebounding to take the next two sets 25-22, 15-11.

“The third day opened our eyes,” Troutman said. “That loss to BOSS?made us realize that we can lose and made us play harder after that.”

The win over BOSS earned Rimrock Nationals a berth in the championship against Kent Juniors Volleyball Club (Washington), which turned out to be one of the best matches of the year.

Kent took the first set of the match 25-21. Rimrock rebounded to take the second set 25-22, setting up one final game to 15. In the deciding set, Rimrock took the early lead, and led 13-10 late in the match. However, the team couldn’t hold the lead, eventually falling 16-14.

“We’re doing exceptional,” Kent said. “We beat all the teams from Oregon and our only loss was to a team that hadn’t lost a set all year before they played us. They have a player who plays on the National Junior Olympic Team, and they are the top team from Washington. It was a great team effort.”

“I think we worked as a team,”?echoed Troutman.

The National squad was not the only Rimrock team to compete at the tournament, which was held in the Ed Moshofsky Sports Center at University of Oregon, in Eugene, Jan. 19-21.

The Rimrock 18s Red team also competed in the tournament, going 3-4 and finishing in 38th place.

Also competing in the tournament was the Rimrock 16s, who finished with a 5-4 record and wound up 19th in a 72-team field.

The Rimrock National team is back in action this weekend when they travel to Kelso, Wash. for the Columbia Power Platinum Tournament.