A White River volleyball squad that finished the South Puget Sound League 2A regular season with a 12-2 mark, split in its Saturday matches at the subdistrict volleyball tournament at Franklin Pierce. Tournament play was for seeding purposes only.

After losing to ninth-ranked North Kitsap 3-1, White River got its act together in time to beat the Interlake Saints 3-1 and move on to the West Central District III 2A tourney that begins Friday at Washington High.

White River will play the winner of Friday’s 3 p.m. encounter between Sequim and Sumner. The Hornets came into the 2A wars as the No. 3 seed, while Sumner slid under the wire at 11th out of 12 seeded squads from the subdistricts. Sumner toppled Foster 25-14, 25-7, 25-10 on Saturday to keep its season alive.

White River, which came into the subdistrict tournament as the SPSL 2A’s second-place squad, was catapulted into the subs with a bit more confidence after prevailing over local nemesis Sumner, in the final regular season match.

This battle took place Oct. 25 and went the distance.

The Spartans stunned the Hornets by swatting them in the initial set 25-8, but White River quickly recovered to take the next two sets 26-24, 25-22.

Sumner refused to bow out meekly and pushed the match to a sudden death fifth set, by claiming the fourth set 25-20.

The sudden death set was a knock-down-drag-out struggle, but when the dust cleared White River emerged as the triumphant one, winning the marathon spikefest 20-18.

Both units put up memorable numbers. Highlights for Sumner included Janille Panula’s 41 assists as well as the dynamic duo of Katie Egbert and Danika Guiley combining for a season high 42 kills, with 21 apiece.

White River’s side of the net featured great individual performances out of Jailyn VanSickle, who had kills, 16 assists and a dozen digs, as well as Dannie Stroud who had 18 kills.