Spikers take fourth at state tournament

Published 7:00 am Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Spartans go 3-1 over two days, win second trophy in four years in Kennewick.

KENNEWICK – With tears, smiles and laughter, a happy Bainbridge volleyball team posed for photos for parents with some hardware in their hands.

“It’s really special,” an emotional Hannah Stuart said. “I’m really, really happy right now.”

Labeled as a “longshot” by the local paper, the Spartans took out Enumclaw, ranked fourth in the state, by the scores of 25-20, 25-19, 22-25 and 25-21 to earn fourth place at the 3A state volleyball tournament at the Toyota Center in Kennewick last weekend.

To get there, they upset Sumner, ranked third in the state, by the scores of 25-17, 25-13, 21-25, 16-25 and 15-8, but then lost to tenth ranked Shorecrest by the scores of 21-25, 16-25 and 23-25.

Bainbridge rebounded the next day to defeat their old Olympic League rival Olympic by the scores of 25-19, 23-25, 25 20 and 25-19.

“Considering we were the darkhorse coming in, that’s great,” head coach Julie Miller said.

Bainbridge got the 8 a.m. game with the Sumner Spartans on Friday but didn’t show any sluggishness over the early bird start, winning the first two games thanks to the bunches of kills from the trio of Stuart, Kelcey Dunaway and Marijke Schwarz-Smith.

Lindsey Bratonia contributed with several service aces while Ally Post dished out assists right and left (she finished with 53 for the match.)

But Sumner fought back to take the next two games and put the momentum firmly on their side.

Bainbridge took control of the fifth game, taking a 3-0 lead and never letting go.

Dunaway scored a big kill at 11-7, followed by an ace from her and kills by Dominique Atherley and Stuart.

Stuart put the game away on match point.

Against Shorecrest, the team lost a close first game, but struggled with the Scots’ multiple hitters and strong defense as they were taken down in three games.

“The Shorecrest one was a bummer that we lost it, but we felt we played pretty decently,” Miller said. “We just shook it off. We knew we had to come back. We’re not done, so we get to play more.”

Schwarz-Smith said they came into their consolation match with some motivation.

“We were not willing to lose to Olympic,” she said. “Losing to (another) Kitsap team was not OK.”

In the first ever meeting of two Kitsap County teams in a state volleyball tournament, the Spartans took control from the beginning of the first game, building a 9-4 lead and never looking back.

In the second game, Olympic took a 8-3 lead, but Bainbridge came back to tie it at 14 on a Post ace.

Her next serve went out of bounds to give the Trojans the lead, but the Spartans caught back up with them at 19-19.

The two teams traded leads up to the end before Olympic reeled off four straight points by Brittni Featherstone and Eliana Zalazar for the win.

In the third game, the Spartans took the lead, but the Trojans got right back into it to tie it at nine.

Schwarz-Smith scored the go-ahead kill and Bainbridge were able to keep them at bay for the win.

The two teams traded ties in the fourth game before two errors by the Trjoans gave the Spartans a critical two point lead.

The Bainbridge front line did the rest, and celebrated when an Olympic kill went out for match point.

The Spartans won with Dunaway reduced to playing the front line, as she pulled her quad muscle in the loss to the Scots.

Miller put in Heather Schneider and Chelsea Bell when Dunaway had to move to the back row to save her from moving around too much and aggravating the injury.

“I’m asking them to do something that they haven’t done considering they’re both setters,” Miller said. “But they did a really good job and everyone picked up the slack.”

Against Enumclaw, Bainbridge took it to the Hornets, winning the first two games and setting a tone.

“I feel like we came out so calm,” Bratonia said. “Everyone just played really well. The first game went by so fast, but it went so well.”

Post agreed.

“After that first game I realized that we can beat this team,” she said. “It was smooth sailing after that.”

But the waters turned a bit choppy when the Hornets took an early lead and withstood some runs to take the third game.

“We just had to make it exciting,” Schwarz-Smith said.

“That’s our style,” Bratonia joked. “Have we ever not done that (this year)? I think there have been two or three games where we haven’t done that.”

“We just take a little break,” Post said. “Then we come back and finish.”

They did just that, trading the lead in the fourth game until Schwarz-Smith put them up for good with a kill.

Dunaway scored the final match point of the season with a block.

While it’s not a title, Stuart said it was “great to end on a win.”

Schwarz-Smith agreed.

“Everyone wanted to come out on top,” she said. “There were teams that were playing right next to us that we wanted to beat (placewise) which we did.”

Those teams included Mercer Island and Issaquah (who took home eighth and fifth-place trophies) and Central Kitsap, who took home fifth.

It’s the first time ever that two Kitsap teams brought home some hardware in volleyball.

“I think our seniors stepped up big time,” Miller said. “We’ve definitely had our ups and downs, but we finished a better team than we started, which is the most important thing.

“I’m happy with it.”

Bainbridge finished with a record of 19-7.