LHS volleyball looks for third straight GOL title

Sometimes experience isn’t always measured by actual playing time. Experience can be obtained by familiarity with your teammates and coaches.

That will be the case with this year’s La Grande High School varsity volleyball team.

It may not look like an experienced team on paper. In fact, the Tigers lost eight seniors from last year’s team that made a run to the state tournament. But this year’s group knows how to compete and will look for familiarity with one another to take them back to the state tournament.

Coming back for the Tigers this season are four seniors that got valuable playing time during last season, including starting setter Shelby Hasse.

“She is just a really special player,” Becker said of Hasse. “Anytime you have a player back it is best to have your setter, so we are just really fortunate to have Shelby back this season.”

The other three players returning are Jacey Childs, who Becker will play in a utility role this season; backup setter Brittany Elliot; and outside hitters Aleia May and Cami Bell.

Those four along with four seniors who make the step up to the varsity squad this year give the Tigers eight seniors in all who have seen a lot of action in their high school careers.

Becker will also rely on a group of underclassmen to come in for a change of pace when LHS needs it.

The Tigers have won the Greater Oregon League title in each of the past two seasons, and Becker doesn’t see why that can’t happen again this year.

“We really just want to take it one game at a time and improve each and every game,” she said. “But we do expect to defend the GOL title this year.”

Last season’s team started off a little rough, but midway through the season they found their stride and cruised to the state tournament before falling to Douglas in the second round.

Becker hopes that this year’s team can learn from that experience.

“Last year we took our bumps early on, but we used that later on in the year,” she said.

La Grande will find out just what type of team they have when they take the court at the Pendleton Invitational Sept . 5.

“This is a really coachable group of girls and they are a lot of fun to be around,” Becker said. “I’m really looking forward to this season.”