T O U R N E Y T O W N . C O M

Kittitas' Katie Hart celebrates after scoring a point against La Salle in the consolation round of the Class B state tournament Saturday at the Yakima Valley SunDome. Photo by GORDON KING Yakima Herald-Republic

That is why, in Saturday morning’s five-game marathon against La Salle — a grinder that would send one team to the trophy round and send the other home with nothing but memories — Katie Hart, a setter, had 26 kills, the highest single-game total in the Class B tournament.

It’s why Jamie Hudson, a right-side hitter, had 49 assists.

It’s why Rose Shriner spent more time sprawled on the floor than a throw rug, turning herself into a human bruise while coming up with an absurdly high 32 digs.

It’s why Erica Granholm, the team’s best player, was dressed in street clothes and on the bench instead of home nursing the aching disappointment that comes with having not one, but two crippling knee injuries.

The second of those injuries, in an Oct. 7 match against Thorp, was the one that could have scuttled the Coyotes’ goal.

Granholm, a 5-7 senior and one of the most explosive hitters in the Central Washington B League, had come back from a torn ACL that had required surgery just three months earlier. “It was like this miraculous comeback,” says Cristina Bruketta, who was on the court directly behind Granholm when it happened.

“She had an awesome kill,” Bruketta recalls, “and when she came down it just snapped.”

Bruketta’s response, and that of her teammates, as Granholm crumpled to the floor was shock.

The Coyotes had already lost Shriner for three weeks of the early season with a dislocated shoulder. Granholm’s return to the team during that stretch had been a real inspirational lift, and this injury — not to her bad knee, but to the other one — could easily have been the team’s undoing.

Naah.

“Our only focus,” says Judy Schomer, the first-year coach of a program in which she was once the star player, “was how are we going to fix it.”

The first thing was to come up with another offensive weapon. The logical choice was Hart, because even though she’s not a protypical hitter — her listed 5-foot-4 height in the program should be accompanied by a conspiratorial wink — she has unbelievable ups.

“She’s so little and she can jump so high,” marvels Hudson. “She’s a better hitter than I am.”

So Hart moved from setter, a position she’d played since she took up the game, to outside hitter, and Stephanie Mifflin moved from that position to the right side. And Hudson, who had been the right-side hitter, became the setter.

“It’s horribly hard,” Schomer said of Hudson having to learn the game’s toughest position in mid-season. “And she had never played it in her life. And Katie had never done anything but set. But they’re great athletes and they have a great work ethic.”

So Hudson became the setter and things began to click until yet another setback: Hudson tore a ligament in her foot and couldn’t practice or play for three weeks. Everybody had to switch back to their previous positions, then — when Hudson returned to the lineup — switch back to the new ones.

Confusing?

Naah. Just more work. “It was never an issue of working hard,” Bruketta said. “We’ve always worked hard.”

“I think it brought us closer together,” says Hudson. “We work together really well. I mean, we worked together before that too, but it just seemed to pull us closer.”

So the Coyotes worked out the kinks and played through the regular season and district, earning the program’s first state-tourney berth since 1999. And when they beat La Salle in that 23-25, 25-14, 25-19, 25-27, 15-9 battle that was a testament to the grit of both teams, they had clinched a trophy. The evening’s four-game loss to third-ranked Sprague-Harrington meant that the Coyotes had to settle for eighth, but it was a trophy nonetheless.

“It means a whole lot to us,” Hudson says. “At the beginning of the season, that was our whole goal, to place at state.”

And that was before the injury to Erica Granholm and all of the challenging changes.

As for Granholm, the career-ending knee injury took her off the court, but not away from her team. She was there at every practice and game, a virtual assistant coach. And there on the Coyotes’ official state roster, listed in the state-tournament program, was No. 10, Erica Granholm — even though she had no chance of playing and wouldn’t be wearing that No. 10 uniform.

She has a much a part in that trophy as any of the girls wearing those uniforms.

“She’s a part of this team,” Schomer said.

Because Granholm never quit. None of them did.

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