Cowgirls: new leadership, same lofty expectations

The Crook County High School girls volleyball team is used to success.

The Cowgirls have reached the post season each year for more than 20 years, winning eight state championships and multiple trophies from the state tournament. Last year's squad went to the state tournament and many of those players return this season.

First-year head coach Makayla Lindburg is excited about what she is seeing from the Cowgirls at practice.

“We've got a lot of younger players that came through that have been in the volleyball program for a long time and then my older girls have been doing volleyball since they were allowed, so it's really competitive right now,” she said. “I am able to mix all the courts when we are are short. I'm able to bring players up from each level. My girls are really good about moving across and working with the younger girls. Right now with the very few practices we've had we are very competitive. I am expecting all three teams to be successful this year.”

The Cowgirls have not picked team captains yet, but Lindburg says that with six seniors the team leadership has been good.

“Right now we are alternating captains for the coin flip, that's what we did today,” Lindburg said following the conclusion of the Summit Jamboree, which was held last Thursday. “With six seniors we've got to narrow it down a little bit, but they all do a really good job and I will have them vote on their team captains later.”

The Cowgirls went undefeated at the jamboree, despite trying people in different positions and playing different offenses in each set.

“We tried a different lineup every single game," Lindburg said. “We tried some 5-1's ( a single setter all the way around the court) and some 6-2's (the setter only playing in the back row) and we were moving people around to different positions because I have a bunch of personnel that are able to play all positions and we were just seeing what worked best. I think they learned what their strong suits are, but we haven't really established an offense yet.”

The Cowgirls rolled past Trinity Lutheran 25-8 in their opening set, then defeated South Eugene 25-21 in their second set. Crook County controlled the early portions of the set, jumping on top 22-12 before letting the Axemen come back late.

The Cowgirls third set, against Caldera, was a different story. The Wolfpack jumped on top- 4-0 and let 10-3 before Crook County slowly began to dig themselves out of the early hole, finally taking the set 27-25. In their final set of the day, Crook County once again fell behind early, trailing Mountain View 5-0 and 11-5. However, once again the Cowgirls were able to come back, tying the set at 13-13, before going on to take a 25-22 victory over the Cougars.

Sophomore Paige Wood led the Cowgirls in kills with 13, while senior Azmita Pennington finished with eight. Junior Lillimae Brumble and senior Cylie Hartzell each finished with four kills, while seniors Abbigail Pack, Anona Marsh and Callie Winebarger each had three kills.

Brumble led the team in blocks with four, while Pack had two and Wood one. The Cowgirls dominated at the service line as Pennington finished with seven aces, Kendall Martinez added five and Winebarger finished with three, while the Cowgirls had 20 aces as a team.

“Their serve receive is wonderful and for the most part they are really great playing defense, but right now we are trying to get our hitters and our setters connected and really flowing on offense,” Lindburg said. “We have some very tough servers. Every game there was at least one person who went back for at least five or more serves, which is really good at this level.”

The Cowgirls will host their Blue & Gold Dinner and Scrimmage this Wednesday, Sept. 4, with dinner being served beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are available at the gate and all three teams will be scrimmaging during the evening.

The team then opens the regular season on Tuesday, Sept. 10 when they host both Redmond and Sisters.

Lindburg said that the Cowgirls have begun the task of setting goals for the season, but have not finished the task.

“We've talked about it a little bit, but we haven't put it into writing,” she said. We have talked about their goals for each game, but we haven't really had them say out loud what they really want to accomplish this year. The expectations are always high given our long history.”

Lindburg added that she believes that the team can achieve almost anything they set their mind to provided they stay together as a team.

“They just have to keep their heads on and stay humble and continue to work hard,” she said. “They are going to get the most out of their practices, so as long as they keep working hard in practice and keep pushing each other and staying honest about what they need to work on I think they will do really well.”