LACEY — The Battle Ground and Columbia River volleyball teams measured themselves against the best in the state on Saturday.
It turns out that neither is far behind.
Battle Ground and Columbia River both lost semifinal matches to the eventual state champions Saturday at St. Martin’s University.
Battle Ground, ranked No. 5 by the Seattle Times, took the now three-time defending 4A champion Bellarmine Prep down to the wire. The Tigers forced the Tacoma school to a fifth set, where they fell 15-12.
The Tigers rebounded to beat Curtis to win third place, the highest finish in school history.
“I think we won one game our first year,” said Jossilyn Blackman, one of three Battle Ground seniors to have played four varsity seasons. “Now that we’re here, it’s the most amazing experience.”
Battle Ground was Cinderella marching into the palace and going toe-to-toe with the Queen. The Tigers had not been to state since 1989. Bellarmine has been to state nine of the past 10 years.
“We definitely made a name for ourselves,” Battle Ground coach Cheyanne Knight said. “A lot of people were coming out of the woodwork for us in that Bellarmine game, saying they were cheering for us and wished we would have won.”
Battle Ground almost did. The Tigers bounced back from a lackluster third set to win the fourth 25-20.
That set up a fifth set in which Battle Ground jumped to a 6-3 lead. But Bellarmine rallied, eventually pulling ahead 12-10. The Tigers never got within two points from there on.
Class 3A No. 2 Columbia River fell to top-ranked Auburn Riverside in three sets in the semifinals.
But the Chieftains bounced back to beat No. 5 Lakeside (Seattle) in four sets for third place. That finish is one place better than last year’s, and the school’s highest finish since winning the state title in 2000.
“This signifies all the hard work we’ve put in for the past several months,” senior libero Ala Olson said. “We had 6 a.m. workouts all summer long. We had preseason 5 a.m. practices. This team is such a family. It’s nice to go out knowing we were a team that was able to do this.”
The semifinal was a rematch of last weekend’s bi-district championship match, where River took the undefeated Ravens to five sets.
Saturday, Auburn Riverside was the team that made fewer mistakes and executed its attacks better. When their straightforward kills did not work, the Ravens’ dinks found gaps behind River’s blockers.
Auburn Riverside won five of the last seven points to win the first set 25-23.
Neither team led by more than two points in the second set, which Auburn Riverside won 25-23. River was slow to gather itself dropped the first four points of the third set. The Chieftains clawed even at 8-all, but Auburn Riverside pulled away late to win 25-18.
The Chieftains did not dwell on the loss for long.
“The coaches were like ‘I know it sucks but you have five minutes to get over it,” Olson said. “That’s exactly what we did. Before this match, we had the best warmup we’ve ever had.”
Evi Wilson had 16 kills, Andrea Demlow added 15 kills and setter Page Heller capped her strong tournament with 61 assists in the third-place match.
Camas played in the fifth-place match for the third consecutive year, beating Tahoma in four sets. After placing sixth last year, the Papermakers bettered that by one place Saturday.
“We strive to be better every year,” said Lauren Harris, who totaled 43 kills in Saturday’s matches. “That really showed in what we did here. We’re mentally stronger and we don’t let anything get to us when we’re down.”
The Papermakers clinched a trophy Saturday morning by beating University of Spokane in four sets. Harris had 21 kills and 10 digs while Sophia Jacobson added 19 kills.
Prairie saw its tournament end with a consolation-bracket loss to Seattle Prep. Nina Bailey had 14 kills for the Falcons, who went 1-2 in the 3A tournament.
