Haily Murray hits the ball over the net Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
Olivia Alegria hits the ball Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
Ashley Dickinson hits the ball over the net Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
Ada Williams sets the ball Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
Riley Beeson stretches back to hit the ball Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
Sydney Purvis gets the ball over the net Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
Haily Murray attempts to block the ball Thursday afternoon at Napavine High School.
The Napavine Tigers volleyball team looks much different this year than the last four years.
Mollie Olson and Melissa Lee have graduated, as well as standout seniors Maddie Thompson and Abbi Music. But just because some of the top players left the program, there’s no reason to think that other players won’t step up and fill the void.
“We’re definitely scrappy. We’re very young. These girls that we have, I’ve got five coming back. None of them played all the way around, they were all partial players but they are very athletic,” Napavine coach Monica Dailey said. “They’re very smart volleyball players. They’re looking good, we had a very successful summer. We still have a lot of growing to do.”
The 2017 seniors helped lead Napavine to a fourth place finish in state in 2017, the highest in school history.
Now, there’s a new group of seniors looking to leave their mark. Ada Williams, Carleigh Oster, Olivia Woodrum, Ashley Dickinson and Olivia Alegria are all seniors now and have played with and learned from last year’s senior class.
“What I’ve tried to tell them to is Mollie and Melissa and Abbi and Maddie, they were great players and these girls were part of that and they helped make them be as successful as they were,” Dailey said. “Of course they are outstanding athletes in their own right, these girls played with them on the court and they helped with the success so they know what success feels like. That’s the biggest thing is you can’t teach success. They have to figure it out and learn what it feels like and these girls already know what that is.”
Dailey noted Williams, Alegria and Sydney Purvis were voted as team captains this season.
Napavine was 20-2 last season and battled with Mossyrock throughout the season to be the top team in the Central 2B League. The Tigers won the first meeting in a five set, non-league match in Napavine, but the Vikings won the second match in Mossyrock in a league game to claim the C2BL title.
Napavine was able to bounce back from the loss by earning a win over Mossyrock in the district title game. The Tigers and Vikings looked like they might meet again in the state title game, but Napavine ran into eventual state champion Colfax in the quarterfinals, but rebounded on Saturday with wins over Liberty (Spangle) and Kalama to finish in fifth place.
“We want one of those individual banners,” Dailey said as she pointed to the state championship banners in the Napavine gymnasium. “That’s our ultimate goal. We start at the top, this is what our goal is and what do we need to do to get to that goal and get down to the fine tuning of everything. We’ve got a lot of work left to do. We’re scrappy, the girls have a lot of energy when they play.”
The C2BL will not be an easy road this season, with Mossyrock, Kalama and Wahkiakum all looking to capture a league title.
“I think it’s still going to be very competitive because everybody lost players. I think Mossyrock is going to be up there in the one or two,” Dailey said. “Kalama is going to be up there. We saw Toutle Lake and Wahkiakum at camp, they looked really good. It’s going to be whoever is on for the night, I think it’s going to be that type of situation.”
The Tigers begin their season on Tuesday with a jamboree in Adna, followed by hosting a jamboree on Wednesday. Napavine plays their first match of the season on Thursday at home against Life Christian, a team the Tigers defeated in the district semifinals last season.
Dailey hopes the team will become more acclimated with each other on the court in the first few games of the season.
“We did have the summer together, though. It was nice for that. They’re used to playing, but I’ve got some people in different positions,” Dailey said. “I want their excitement to be there, communication is huge. That’s what their goal is is to be really communicative this year and just play hard and the chips will fall where they fall.”
