Top high school performances: Thurston and Pleasant Hill volleyball, Willamette soccer

Eugene-area high school teams wrapped up another exciting week.

This week's top performances featured Thurston volleyball, Pleasant Hill volleyball and Willamette boys soccer.

Each week, The Register-Guard highlights top performances from student-athletes and teams. Coaches can send stats and nominate a player of the week by emailing enoriega@registerguard.com.

Here are this week's top prep performers.

Thurston defeats Churchill in five-set thriller

Led by Julia Cook's 16 kills and six aces, Thurston Colts defeated Churchill Lancers in five sets, 21-25, 25-11, 25-20, 20-25 and 15-9 in a Midwestern League volleyball match Thursday at Churchill High School.

"I've definitely never had a team dynamic like this," Cook said. "We're all so bonded and connected and we all are playing for each other."

Colts' Scout Martin had a team-high five blocks. Bailey Tovey contributed 11 kills and Emily Buller led the team with 42 assists.

"This match was my biggest worry coming into the second half of the season," Thurston head coach David Natt said. "Every league match for us has been a challenge and this one was a big hump for us to get over knowing what (Churchill head coach) Bre Gibbons has done and the quality of player she has."

Thurston overcame an early 1-0 deficit, rallying to win set two on five straight points and set three on a Churchill hitting error.

Churchill was the first to reach 20 points at 20-17 in the fourth set. The Lancers got to set point on back-to-back kills by Kiera Penland and Jaedyn Bones and tied it at two sets apiece.

At the start of the fifth set, Thurston jumped to a 4-0 lead, but Churchill tied it and later took a 6-4 lead.

Tied again at 6-all, Thurston answered with three straight points and the 14-9 lead on a Churchill error. The Colts secured the win on a Lancers error.

"The six (senior starters) have been playing together for a long time and it's really special that we're playing so well together this year," Martin said. "The season started off really strong and we're continuing really strong."

Thurston (14-4, 8-0) hosts Willamette (0-13, 0-9) at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday. Churchill (6-6, 4-3) travels to Eagle Point (12-6, 5-2) at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Pleasant Hill volleyball defeats rival Creswell

The Pleasant Hill Billies volleyball team kept its winning streak alive, defeating rival Creswell Falcons 3-0 (33-31, 25-14, 25-19) on the road Tuesday.

Cheyenne Green led the Billies with 17 kills and Emily Krauss had 19 digs. Anna Crawford contributed 13 digs, seven kills and four aces, and Sari Strinz had 14 digs.

Pleasant Hill is ranked No. 2 in the state in the Class 3A OSAA rankings as of Friday afternoon.

We kept batting," Pleasant Hill head coach Jessica Crawford said. "Trying to earn points and finished on that third set. They did a really good job."

The teams went through 11 ties and six lead changes in the opening set. The Billies went up 11-7 but struggled to get more than six points ahead for the rest of the set.

Pleasant Hill was the first to reach 20 points at 20-14 after a Creswell hitting error but the Falcons went up 23-20 after a couple of unforced errors by the Billies.

The Billies got to set point first, but the Falcons responded with four straight points to tie at 24-all.

A kill from Dayshah Conklin gave Creswell a 26-25 lead. Pleasant Hill rebounded with a kill from Green to tie again. Back-to-back unforced errors by both teams tied it at 29-all and 30-all.

After a Pleasant Hill hitting error tied it 31-all, the Billies answered with straight points with the set point — a serve — ruled in.

"It felt competitive," Green said. "I haven't played a good set like that in a long time."

Pleasant Hill cruised to a 25-14 win in the second set. But the Billies and the Falcons were tied 18-all in the third set. The Billies got to set point first on a kill by Green followed by an ace by Krauss. Pleasant Hill won the third set 25-19.

Pleasant Hill (15-2, 7-1) travels to Sisters (16-1, 7-0) in a Mountain Valley Conference volleyball match at 6 p.m. Monday.

Willamette boys soccer defeats Sheldon

Carlos Ariel De Dios Cruz scored four goals and an assist as the visiting Willamette beat Sheldon 7-0 in a Southwest Conference match Wednesday at Sheldon High School.

Emi Rojo, Roman Stafflund and Roy Arroyo each contributed goals.

Rojo, Alan Cortes Vasquez, Eli Brown and Anthony Mercurio all had assists.

Willamette (9-1, 7-1) hosts Roseburg (0-7-2, 0-6-1) at 6 p.m. Friday.

Edith Noriega is a sports reporter for The Register-Guard. You may reach her at ENoriega@gannett.com and follow her on Twitter at @Noriega_Edith.

This article originally appeared on Register-Guard: Top high school performances: Thurston, Willamette and Pleasant Hill