The Enumclaw volleyball squad split a pair of nonleague contests, losing to White River at EHS and dominating Mount Rainier on the road in three straight sets, making its overall record 1-1.

Against a vastly more experienced White River rival, the frazzled and younger Enumclaw crew took awhile to get over a bad case of jangled nerves. Before Enumclaw knew what had hit them, their backs were against the wall heading into the fourth match, behind two games to one.

In the deciding match No. 4 White River bolted to a 24-19 advantage, before Enumclaw finally snapped out of it, battling back to a 24-24 deadlock.

It was too little too late as the match went to a sizzling Buckley bunch, with the predominantly senior White River faction taking three out of four matches winning 25-19, 25-20 and 27-24, and losing 25-13.

Playing against its Plateau rival, Enumclaw’s captain and senior hitter HayleeMae Dennis was seemingly omnipresent on the court, managing 23 digs and 22 kills. Meanwhile EHS junior defensive specialist Olivia Bannerot chipped in with 15 digs.

It was a brief but successful road trip two days later when Enumclaw visited Mount Rainier and stopped the Rams in three consecutive contests. Against MRHS, Dennis went on another killing spree with 17 super spikes in the trio of tilts and junior middle hitter Molly Lamotte managed two stuff blocks.

After finishing fifth out of 32 teams in Yakima’s Sundome tournament, Enumclaw will go on to open its SPSL 3A campaign Sept. 22 at Decatur at 7 p.m.