WRHS VOLLEYBALL: White River digs in for a fourth-place state finish

The White River High volleyball squad improved on last year’s performance to place fourth in the Class 2A state tournament contested at Evergreen State College during the Veteran’s Day weekend. With memories of finishing eighth in the tournament in 2010, the predominantly senior White River crew started this year’s show by edging Archbishop Murphy High 15-25, 25-17, 21-25, 25-15 and, in a nail-biting sudden death set, 15-9. “White River was a really solid team against us,” Archbishop Murphy coach Jeff Curtis said, noting the difference between White River and his team was that the Hornets were flexible enough to make the necessary adjustments.

By John Leggett • November 14, 2011 5:38 pm

The White River High volleyball squad improved on last year’s performance to place fourth in the Class 2A state tournament contested at Evergreen State College during the Veteran’s Day weekend.

With memories of finishing eighth in the tournament in 2010, the predominantly senior White River crew started this year’s show by edging Archbishop Murphy High 15-25, 25-17, 21-25, 25-15 and, in a nail-biting sudden death set, 15-9.

“White River was a really solid team against us,” Archbishop Murphy coach Jeff Curtis said, noting the difference between White River and his team was that the Hornets were flexible enough to make the necessary adjustments.

“They just adapted well enough to stay with the things they were able to do well against us and we couldn’t stop them in the end,” Curtis said.

White River coach Stryder Argo admitted his charges were a bit nervous in the first set and later had a string of about 10 bad passes in a row, but the Hornet defense continuously adjusted and bailed the Hornets out.

Dannie Stroud and Jailyn VanSickle stepped up their play as VanSickle racked up 16 kills and 22 digs and Stroud recorded 13 kills, eight blocks and 29 digs. Shailee Strecker and Cassidy Kunst managed 23 digs and 39 assists, respectively.

Six hours later, the Hornets tangled with a familiar foe in North Kitsap, which WRHS had beaten in the West Central District tournament just one week before.

Apparently White River had picked up on a few of North Kitsap’s weaknesses, because the Hornets swept the Vikings in straight sets 25-17, 25-20 and 25-14. Again rising to the occasion were Stroud and VanSickle as they combined for 20 kills and 25 digs while Kunst chipped in with 30 assists.

The Hornets moved on to the second day of the tournament and were paired against the highly-touted Burlington-Edison Tigers who were undefeated at 23-0, and had not lost a set along the way.

Even though White River eventually fell 25-16, 25-18, 17-25 and 25-21, the Hornets took the third set.

“I think we may have gotten inside their heads, because we gave those Tigers their first set loss of the year and I feel like that may have shaken their confidence just a bit,” Stroud said.

Although White River ran away with the SPSL 2A title, finishing with a 12-0 record, it showed that it could be hot and cold sometimes in the fourth set against Burlington-Edison as it had five service errors and the Tigers made the Hornets pay dearly for its mistakes

Van Sickle and Courtney Hall teamed up for 25 digs in the match, while Kunst chipped in with 30 assists and Haley Valalla and Alisha Bidwell contributed a half dozen kills each.

After falling to the Tigers, the eventual tourney champion, it was on to mix it up with Selah High bunch to determine which squad would claim third and fourth place honors.

An exhausted White River group could not withstand the Vikings, who prevailed 25-18, 21-25, 25-13 and 25-16.

“This is a team that we should have beaten,” Argo said, “but we came out displaying not very much energy and couldn’t really put anything together. It was disappointing to have such a poor showing in the last match of the tournament, but overall the girls played very well for two days and I am very proud of the efforts they made. Fourth in state is nothing to be ashamed of.”