Friday's State 2B Volleyball: Mossyrock Finishes Third at State 2B Volleyball Tournament

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YAKIMA — The Vikings weren’t able to reach their fourth consecutive championship game, but still had a strong showing with a third place finish at the State 2B volleyball tournament on Friday at the Yakima SunDome.

Mossyrock met the defending state champion La Conner in the semifinals, a rematch of the 2018 state championship game. La Conner won the first two sets, 25-16 and 25-19. The Vikings tried to battle back with a 25-21 third set win, but the Braves were able to close out the match with a 25-8 fourth set win.

This put Mossyrock into the third place game against Tri-Cities Prep. It was a clean sweep for the Vikings with set scores of 28-26, 25-19 and 25-18.

“The first thing I said when I went into the locker room was it can’t be all or nothing. We can't be just going for the championship or nothing. Third place is a pretty big deal and a lot of people would love to say I took third place at state,” Mossyrock coach Alex Nelson said. “It’s a great accomplishment and if you don't go into this match with that attitude, you're going to regret it later, so don't have any regrets. I think we were very tired, physically, and just emotionally taxed. I thought we controlled the whole game.”



It has been quite a run for Mossyrock seniors Faith Mulligan, Andee Nelson, Justus Stajduhar, Gracie Lovan, Shania Hadaller, Jenifer Brockway and Amy Fitzhugh, finishing second the past three seasons along with a third place finish in 2019.

“They’ve put themselves in a position to be third place or higher, every year for four years. That's a big deal because it is very hard to do. They had a great season from start to finish,” coach Nelson said. “They won league, and district, and they went over to state and took third place. So I’m really proud of them. When we first looked at the bracket, they had the top three ranked teams on the same side. We knew it was going to be a fight and those girls took it head-on. They didn't complain because of that or anything, they just knew they had to fight.”

Mossyrock finished the season 19-2 overall and won the Central 2B League title and their first district championship in program history.