Take a guess which makes Siuslaw Vikings volleyball coach Jon Hornung happier.

Sweeping Marshfield at home Tuesday night to continue a first-place stranglehold on the Far West League.

Or, losing a relatively meaningless tournament match to Douglas, 3-1.

Bzzzz. Time's up. The answer: Losing to Douglas.

"After the Douglas match, it was probably the happiest I've been all year, even though we lost," Hornung said. "It was probably the only loss this season that we were still smiling afterwards."

The loss to Douglas, a league rival, came at the North Marion Fall Classic in Aurora this past Saturday.

The Vikings were without three starters, including middle blockers Makenzie York and Elyssa Rose and outside hitter Claire Waggoner.

"We basically went into the tournament figuring we have nothing to lose," Hornung said. "We mixed up the lineup every match that we played, just to see what we could do.

"And we played well."

The experience and the confidence the Vikings gained was priceless, and paid off big time Tuesday.

Sophomore McKenzie Colton took over at libero when regular starter Maci Wells came up lame, and sophomore Alyssa Richards was inserted early in the match when Waggoner was hit in the face by a teammate's foot.

"Colton stepped up big time," Hornung said. "We told her to go for it, any ball near to you, just go crazy and make the plays. And she did."

Richards moved in seamlessly for Waggoner.

"Claire got whomped in the head, and the jaw, and she needed to come out," Hornung said. "The fact that I could say, 'Alyssa Richards, get in there,' was big.

"Alyssa played Saturday, at the tournament, and she's getting her confidence. She knows she can get in there and do it. That's fun to see."

The confident Vikings took it to the Pirates on Tuesday, winning 25-12, 25-11, 25-13. Siuslaw won the first-round match with Marshfield 3-2 at Coos Bay after spotting the Pirates a 2-sets-to-none lead.

"We're getting over that hump of actually beating (the Pirates) at their home court," Hornung said. "So the intimidation factor is gone. We already beat 'em once, so it was like, 'Why not beat them again?'"

Rose had a big night with 7 kills and 6 blocks. York had 4 kills and 3 aces, junior Emma Collins 5 kills and sophomore Jordan Long 4 aces.

Siuslaw heads to Brookings-Harbor on Thursday. The Bruins are 0-7 in league.

"We need to go down there, get the job done, play our game," Hornung said. "We should take care of business."

Then the Vikings close with two big matches next week, at second-place Douglas (5-2) on Tuesday and home Thursday against third-place North Bend (4-3).

North Bend is the only team to beat Siuslaw in league play, and the Bulldogs visit Glenn Butler Court on senior recognition night.

"We played awful against North Bend," Hornung said.

Obviously, it wasn't his happiest moment this season. But the Vikings learned from it, and adjusted.

"We were running different lineups, and we just had Abby (Watkins) setting," Hornung said. "We shifted that after North Bend, thinking we needed a bigger block.

"We wanted to have Brittany (Long) and Emma (Collins) blocking, so we changed the lineup around."

The tournaments also helped.

"We go to these tournaments, and the girls get experience," Hornung said. "We went to Canby and lost a bunch, but we got experience. We went to North Marion and we lost a bunch, but we got a lot of experience.

"The tournament losses kind of killed our rankings, but the experience really pays off. It really helps during league play."