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

Colfax coach Sue Doering, who celebrated her 500th career win earlier this season, has received an abundance of support as she fights breast cancer. BRIAN FITZGERALD/ Yakima Herald-Republic

The final regular-season home volleyball match for the Colfax Bulldogs was essentially a Sue Doering love-fest. That is, the town, the school and the volleyball community turned out, nearly 200 strong, to remind their coach just what they thought of her.

That’s why, at the end of the match, dozens of “500+” signs were held high by supporters in honor of Doering, whose 500th career victory had come earlier in the season. And pinned to lapels all over the gymnasium were pink ribbons — each wearer’s individual show of support for Doering in her ongoing battle with breast cancer.

Doering and Omak coach Jenny Kerr have both been going through energy-draining sessions of chemotherapy while leading their team to the SunDome for the Class 1A and 2A state tournaments, respectively.

For Doering, who has traditionally relied on her three assistant coaches (Heather York, Jamie McKinley and Corinna Lease) for various aspects of team preparation, it has meant counting on them even more. It has also meant that Doering, who wears a stocking cap to cover the wispy hair left by the chemo treatments, sometimes finds herself surrounded by three assistants who have shown up wearing stocking caps in an all-for-one show. Then sophomore middle Lauren Mellor knitted caps for every player, and they all wore them to Thursday’s team introductions.

It has also meant a freezer, refrigerator and pantry so cram-jammed with food — brought over by neighbors and community members — that anybody visiting the Doerings’ home has to be prepared to eat. Something. Please.

“I don’t think there’s a day goes by that I don’t get two or three cards, or a call or two, or flowers or some kind of gift,” Doering said Friday. “It’s been amazing.”

Doering and Kerr have both taken their teams a long way. Both are still in the trophy chase, Colfax going in Saturday’s 1A semifinals and Omak still alive for a fifth-place trophy in the 2A tourney.

SEEING IS BELIEVING: When King’s sophomore middle blocker Kimberly Mayhle was struggling early in the season, Knights coach Steve Bain couldn’t figure out what the problem was. As an off-campus coach, Bain didn’t know what Mayhle’s teammates knew -- that she’s nearsighted and wore glasses in school. She didn’t wear them on the volleyball court.

Last month, Mayhle was fitted for contact lenses, and her game immediately surged into high gear. She played a key role in the Knights’ five-game thriller over Kiona-Benton in Friday’s opening round.

COLOR GUARD: Grandview’s players have been wearing the same uniforms all year, including their run to the Central Washington District title. Their home uniforms — white jerseys with silver lettering -- have never been a problem.

Until Friday.

The "down" (on-court) official at the Greyhounds’ opening match, a three-game sweep of Steilacoom, told them the contrast on the uniforms was insufficient.

“These are new uniforms this year, but we’ve been using the same color contrast for six or seven years,” said Greyhound assistant coach Michelle Swearingen. “The up official (working Grandview’s first match) didn’t think it was a problem. She said she thought it was a nitpicky issue.”

The Greyhounds, not wanting to press the issue, went to the road uniforms for their later match.

COINCIDENTAL IRONY: To advance to Saturday’s Class 2A finals, Meridian coach Diane Axelson will have to beat a school of which she has fond memories.

In Saturdays’s 12:30 a.m. semifinals, the Trojans will face Grandview, which was where Axelson had her first coaching job. She was the Greyhounds’ head coach in 1975 and 1976 after graduating from Central Washington University, and her husband is a Grandview High alumnus.

BABY TALK: Babies and volleyball go together for La Conner coach Suzanne Marble. She had her first baby just before the 2002 volleyball season, which resulted in the school’s first state championship in any sport. This year, Marble is oh-so-pregnant with her second child, due in nine days or so.

Asked if her doctor might think five-game matches like her team’s thriller over White Pass were a good idea, she laughed, “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

Adding to this youth parade, the kids in Marble’s lineup are indeed kids -- there isn’t a senior on the roster, and eight of Marble’s nine players are freshmen or sophomores.

LONG AND THE SHORT OF IT: Height helps in volleyball, but it certainly isn’t everything. Pullman has one player taller than 5-7 (and that one is 5-8), and Ridgefield three 5-10 middle blockers, yet the elfin Greyhounds beat the towering Spudders in four games.

The tallest team in the 1A tournament, Bellevue Christian, regularly has two 6-2 middles on the court in Melissa Reich and Natalie Lomax, and could bring a 6-4 sophomore, Janet Beckerman, off the bench. Still, the Vikings fell in the first round to Goldendale,

QUICK SETS: Lynden Christian demands high standards of its student/athletes, and sat several of its players for a large chunk of the regular season for athletic-code violations -- which can be as benign as being as a party at which anybody (not even the athlete in question) is drinking. The Lyncs who had sit out included one of their most dominant players, 5-10 middle Heidi Ravenhorst, whose importance to the team were evident in her 16-kill, 9-dig performance in LC’s tourney-open sweep of Cascade.
Meridian had won 43 games in a row before dropping their second game of their first-round, four-game victory over Omak. ... What’s wrong with this picture? Bush’s Jill Collymore, her team’s best jump-server and Class 1A’s most dominant net player, routinely began Friday’s games in the middle of the back row -- where she’d be the last on her team to serve and would be in the back row for at least two rotations. Best matches of day one: Pick your five-setter, there were a slew of them. The King’s Knights’ victory over Kiona-Benton might have been the wildest. The Knights blow a two-games-to-none lead, then rallied from an 11-9 deficit in the fifth game. Interestingly, Ki-Be had a near reversal of fortunes -- with the same result -- in its next match; the Bears took the first two games against Eatonville, then lost the last three as Cruiser middle Kayla Roof simply took over the match.

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