ADNA — In the final moments of Adna’s non-league matchup against Napavine, Adna coach Wendie Dotson called a timeout with the hope of resetting her team before a final push.
The Pirates trailed by two late in the fifth and final set, but Dotson was optimistic that her team could put together a rally and come away with a victory.
“We want high expectations for these girls, and they can do it,” Dotson said. “It’s about just putting the pieces together.”
After the timeout, Adna did just that. Napavine scored the next point, but the Pirates scored the final five points of the match to come away with a 25-16, 19-25, 25-23, 23-25, 15-13 victory.
“We needed that,” Adna coach Wendie Dotson said. “They kept it together, which is something we’ve been focusing on. It was just point for point, that’s all we had to do … It’s big just for them to start believing in themselves.”
The outcome of the game seemed to swing with every point in the fifth set, but there were plenty of game-changing moments leading up to that point.
The Pirates took care of things in the first set, going on an early 11-0 run to build a 12-3 lead, and though Napavine eventually got within six, Adna was able to close out the set before it got too close. Napavine took the second set under similar circumstances, although the Tigers didn’t extend their lead until later in the set.
Sets three through five felt more like a state tournament game than a non-league September matchup.
With Adna up 22-21 in the third set, Adna’s Madison Otten had an incredible kick save to not only keep a long rally alive but also set up a kill.
“That was probably the highlight of the game,” Dotson said. “She did it like a set, and she got an assist for it. That brought the energy. They were like, okay, if she can do this, we can do anything.”
The Pirates had another 22-21 lead in the fourth set, but the Tigers rallied and scored four of the final five points of the set to force a fifth.
“They did a better job tonight of staying focused in longer spurts,” Napavine coach Monica Dailey said. “I was proud of them.”
That set up the deciding fifth, which was tied at five, six, seven, nine, and ten before the final sequence.
“It’s always disappointing to lose, especially to your rival,” Dailey said. “They played some good ball tonight, it just didn’t go our way.”
The win was the Pirates’ first since Sept. 11, snapping a four-game losing streak and giving them a burst of confidence heading into C2BL play. For a younger team still trying to find its stride, it was a welcome sign.
“We do good things in practice,” Dotson said. “To come out and actually do it and be successful at it, it was good. I think we’ve made progress.”
One change Dotson made on Tuesday was moving Avery LaFontaine to the back row. LaFontaine was all over the court, and not only was serving during Adna’s early run to start the game, but she finished off the first set with an ace.
McKenna Torrey had multiple kills in the final set to finish off a nine-kill, 18 dig performance, while Alyssa Carroll had a double-double with 19 kills and 11 digs. Taylor Johnson had 25 assists, six digs, and a pair of blocks, while Mickey March finished with three kills, three aces, and two assists. Shelby Eixenberger and Hadleigh Gerard added both eight digs.
Dailey was also proud of what she saw from her team, but also acknowledged that it’s time to start turning that progress into wins.
“We’re getting into the part of the season that’s do or die,” Dailey said. “We have some ups and downs still. It’s a little bit of a roller coaster. They have to step up to the plate and not get frazzled and stay focused. We’re working on that.”
Makayla Brett and Hollie Brockmueller were perfect from the service line, and Brett also had 11 assists. Lilly Grabianowski had 22 digs, and Lilly Blair added 19 digs and 10 assists. Kennedy Purvis tallied 14 digs and 14 kills, and Anna Guenther logged 10 digs and four aces.
The league rematch between these two teams will come on Oct. 23 in Napavine, but before then, each team has multiple C2BL games in front of them.
The Tigers (1-7) will start league play Thursday at home against Toledo, while the Pirates (2-5) won’t play their C2BL opener until next Tuesday, Oct. 7, at Rainier.
“Every game, we just want to make one aspect better,” Dotson said. “Just keep building.”
