Sydney Purvis (12) puts the ball over the net Thursday afternoon at Napavine High school.
Olivia Alegria (1) stretches back to hit the ball Thursday afternoon at Napavine High school.
Ada Williams (11) makes a dig Thursday afternoon at Napavine High school.
Rae Sisson (10) makes a dig Thursday afternoon at Napavine High school.
Haily Murray (6) puts a hand on the ball Thursday afternoon at Napavine High school.
Riley Beeson (2) puts the ball over the net Thursday afternoon at Napavine High school.
NAPAVINE – In their first contest of the season here on Thursday evening the Tigers were able to reel off three straight victories in order to down Life Christian Academy before the visitor’s ever had a chance.
Napavine fell behind ever-so-briefly in the opening set but then stormed back to defeat the Eagles 25-20. They then pulled away in the back end of the match with convincing wins of 25-8 and 25-16 to put the game away.
After losing several key players from last year’s squad, Napavine sent out a starting lineup featuring Olivia Alegria as the libero, with Haily Murray, Jesse Lee, Ada Williams, Vannie Fagerness, and Sydney Purvis. With a handful of new players in key positions, and a last-minute lineup switch implemented by coach Monica Dailey, the Tigers found themselves trailing 6-2 out of the gate but were soon able to find their balance and then went to work putting the Eagles away for good. After tying the game up for the fourth time at 13-all the Tigers never looked back.
“I knew they were nervous because we’d had that conversation at our team dinner before the game,” said Dailey, who noted that scrimmages and jamborees are only so useful for getting early season butterflies out. “They don’t like to lose even though it’s a non-league game, and they knew how strong Life Christian is, so they were a little bit nervous for that too, I think.”
Purvis posted seven kills and seven digs in the match while Fagerness added three digs and 100 percent success on her serves. Dailey noted that Rae Sisson and Olivia Alegria also played well defensively with five digs each.
Offensively, Murray scored six aces for Napavine and caught the eye of her coach.
“She had a great serving night for us. She played strong at the net also,” said Dailey.
Jesse Lee also earned kudos from her coach for the extra effort she exhibited during her first real varsity contest.
“She did real well tonight. She’s an incoming freshman and she just played real smart and gave her teammates a lot of useful information to help them play better. Which you don’t really see all too often in freshman,” said Dailey.
If there were any blemishes on the Tiger effort it could be seen in their passing and service play. Dailey said that Williams and Olivia Woodrum played well in the middle and bailed their teammates out over and over again by making the most of frequently suboptimal passes.
The poor serving seemed to bug Dailey most. She noted that her team misfired on 13 serve attempts, including four in the second set that accounted for half of the Eagles points.
“To me those are gimme points, that are just, ‘Here, you can just have them,’” lamented Dailey.
In the pregame festivities Napavine junior Desaree Brower regaled the crowd with a live rendition of the National Anthem while still sporting her knee pads. All in attendance agreed that it was an excellent effort. After the game members of both teams joined hands for a brief prayer on the court and received a round of applause from the crowd.
Napavine (1-0) will play at the Centerville Volleyball Tournament at Centralia High School on Saturday with play beginning at 9 a.m.
