Kamiak bags district volleyball title

Published 8:25 pm Sunday, November 8, 2009

MARYSVILLE — Good teams can win even when they don’t play their best. The Kamiak Knights volleyball team is a good team.

Good enough to beat Edmonds-Woodway in four sets, 25-22, 25-22, 18-25, 25-17, to win the 4A District 1 championship on Saturday.

“We did not play our best, but they persevered,” Kamiak coach Natalie Bowie said. “They just kept doing what needed to be done.”

After Kamiak took the first two sets of the match, the Warriors looked poised to make a run at the Knights, taking control midway through the third set. Freshman, Miah Diirell closed out the set with two aces.

But it was Kamiak’s day and Kamiak’s tournament with the Knights seizing control in the fourth set. Kamiak held a 17-10 lead and sensed the championship drawing near, but E-W had one more run in it, cutting the lead to 20-17. Then the Knights reeled off five straight points, capped of by Jazlyn Anderson’s ace to end the match.

“I think our hard work really came together,” said junior Jazmyne Dodd. “It was fun, its fun to come out on top.”

“This group is wonderful. I think they have done a really good job of treating each player as a sister and not just a teammate,” Bowie said.

The state tournament begins on Thursday at the Toyota Center in the Tri-Cities. The pairings will be determined in a draw held today.

Of course, the goal at state is to win, but Bowie said that win or lose, she wants her team to leave it all on the court.

“The goal is that we leave the state championships proud of how we played,” Bowie said.

Bowie said she is not too familiar with the 4A teams outside the area, but she has an idea what to expect. “We’re going to see some tough teams over there, that’s why they are in the state tournament,” she said.

The competitive Wesco conference should help Kamiak as well as E-W and Jackson to be prepared for state. “I think the nice thing about our league is that there wasn’t just one dominant team,” Bowie said.

Bryce Larson had 19 kills and 14 digs, Martha Muldowney had nine kills and seven blocks and Ally Bowles had 31 assists to lead Kamiak.

Leigh Fishback finished with 37 assists, 18 digs and two aces, Miah Diirell had 16 kills, four aces and 18 digs and Hannah Lauber had 10 kills and three block kills to lead E-W.

Meanwhile, just a few minutes before Kamiak wrapped up its district championship, Jackson was busy taking care of Marysville-Pilchuck and punching the Wesco’s final ticket to the 4A state tournament.

Leigh-Ann Haataja ended the match in the fourth set with a thunderous kill that sent the Timberwolves to state with a 15-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-10 victory.

“It’s the same thing that I have told those girls all year long, that you have to be composed,” Jackson coach Erik Champoux said. “We know if we stay focused and composed that we can beat anyone.”

The Timberwolves, the Wesco South No.1 seed going into the tournament, rebounded from a tough loss to E-W and a tough first set against M-P to advance to state.

“It’s just Jackson volleyball, we have to play our game,” Champoux said.

“Yes, we had to go the hard way, but we accomplished our goal,” Haataja said.

Haataja had 12 kills, Christy Cain had 12 kills and Haley MacDonald had 32 assists and four aces to lead Jackson.

Jackson advanced to the winner-to-state/loser-out game by defeating Mountlake Terrace in a loser-out match 25-12, 23-25, 25-21, 25-9. M-P found itself facing Jackson by knocking off Monroe, Wesco North’s No.1 seed, in a loser-out match 18-25, 25-17, 25-15, 25-23.