The Tumwater volleyball team went 1-1 on its first day at the 2A State Tournament in Yakima, sweeping No. 10 Chief Sealth in the Round of 16 before being swept by No. 2 Burlington-Edison in the quarterfinals.
The first game was almost all Tumwater, as the T-Birds took the first two sets 25-18 and 25-12 before holding off a late Chief Sealth rally to win the third 25-20.
“The girls did a really good job taking care of their own jobs and not doing too much,” Tumwater coach Molly Cichosz said.
Things didn’t go as smoothly in the quarterfinal, as the T-Birds scored just 10, 12, and 14 points in the three sets.
“We didn’t do a good job adjusting to their strong suits,” Cichosz said. “And we didn’t do what we do well. It was kind of a double whammy for us.”
While the hunt for a state title is over, the T-Birds are still in contention for fifth or sixth place. To get to the fifth-sixth game, they’ll have to beat No. 6 Ridgefield, which lost its quarterfinal to No. 3 Columbia River. That matchup will start at 10:45 a.m. Saturday morning.
Ridgefield and Tumwater met just last week in a district semifinal, a match that the Spudders won in four.
“I’m really grateful we’ve seen them before,” Cichosz said. “I hope that we’ll be able to use that to our advantage tomorrow morning and capitalize.”
A win would ensure that the Thunderbirds would leave Yakima with a trophy for the first time since winning it all in 2016.
“We need to bring a lot of energy and grit,” Cichosz said. “No one is just gonna give up at this stage … It’s gonna be tough, but I think we can do it.”
