Bulldogs win third straight Class 1A title

By SCOTT SANDSBERRY
YAKIMA HERALD-REPUBLIC

With her team one game from its third straight state title, Colfax volleyball coach Sue Doering called on David and Goliath again.

She had done it in the Bulldogs’ semifinal victory over second-ranked King’s, and now it was time for a reprise.

“When you’ve got a team down, you have to keep them there,” Doering said of her between-games speech. “It’s like David and Goliath. When David had knocked Goliath down with the stone, he didn’t stand there with his foot on Goliath’s throat; he took out his sword and cut Goliath’s head off.”

A grisly metaphor, perhaps, but effective and, in this case, apt. In the regional finals, top-ranked Lakeside had rallied from two games down to knock off the Bulldogs, their third victory in four meetings between the teams. But, in the 2006 1A tournament, no team was as good at Colfax at keeping its opponents down.

With their 26-24, 25-13, 25-19 triumph over top-ranked Lakeside, the Bulldogs quite literally blocked the Eagles’ seemingly inexorable drive to their first state title since their back-to-back 2002 crowns in 2001 and 2002. Again and again, the Bulldogs’ front line of Lauren Mellor, Megan Teade and Sadie Lazzarini sent Lakeside shots bounding back to the floor on the Eagles’ side.

And while Kelli Tikker, Lakeside’s all-world outside hitter, managed to rack up 19 kills over the three games, just as many were dug from the back row or blocked back into her face. Three times, Mellor stuffed Tikker spikes for points.

“Before, that hasn’t happened,” Mellor said of the Bulldogs’ ubiquitous blocks. “We’d get a few blocks, but nothing like that. Tonight we were where we were supposed to be.”

“She’s a great hitter, just amazing,” Teade said of Tikker. “But in practice we pretend we’re her, hitting like we’re Tikker.”

And that kind of practice-court intensity paid off. Doering’s statistics had the Bulldogs with 34 blocks, an inflated number since two blockers on the same block each get credit. “It’s probably about 25,” Doering said. “Hey, our girls have to block Sadie (Lazzarini) and Lauren every day in practice. And Megan Teade just stepped up huge all tournament.”

They all did: The Bulldogs served 77-for-77 as a team in the finals, the first time Doering — whose 19 years at Colfax have produced seven state titles — can ever remember one of her teams pulling a perfecto at state.

The tourney was a showcase for Northeast League teams, who placed 1-2-6, with Chewelah ultimately falling in four games to second-ranked King’s in the third/sixth game. Cascade Christian gutted out a five-gamer over Castle Rock for fourth place and Lynden Christian topped Zillah for fifth.

The difference-maker for Colfax in the Bulldogs’ 25-21, 27-25, 25-13, 26-24 semifinal victory over King’s was the 5-10 Lazzerini. Playing in pain from a partial dislocation of her left shoulder suffered in the first round — after which she emphatically told the team doctor, “I’m playing tonight!” — Lazzerini slammed kills on five of the first eight points of their 9-3 closing burst in the last game, then came up with two great digs that led to the clinching point.

That offset a dominating performance by King’s juniors Kailey Trautmann (14 kills) and 6-foot Bianca Rowland (18 kills). Their outside hitting presented a real challenge for smaller, but defensively quicker Colfax.

But not one the Bulldogs weren’t familiar with.

“We play against Lakeside, and that’s the way they hit — they really prepare you for teams that hit hard,” said Lazzerini, who finished the semifinal match with 17 kills and 14 digs. “You just have to adjust to what they’re doing, where they’re hitting. Our team is good at that.”

In the early semifinal, Chewelah had Lakeside on the ropes early, winning the first game easily and building a 17-11 lead in the second game, thanks to Jordan Monasmith (10 kills) and especially the gritty defense led by splendid senior libero Kelsey Harting.

“She’s awesome — she did a great job of digging,” Lakeside coach Kara Moffatt said of Harting, who, when she wasn’t diving for digs, was exhorting her teammates to stay focused. “They’re a great defensive team. We’ve always feared their defense.”

But it wasn’t only the Cougar defense dominating the early going; the Eagles were also doing a fair amount of shooting themselves in the foot.

“It was mainly our errors that were killing us,” Tikker said. “But we ended up winning that second game and that gave us the momentum that carried us through the next two games.”

Which, of course, carried the top-ranked Eagles into the championship. With the King’s-Colfax semifinal still to come, Tikker didn’t know who she and her teammates would see in the final — only who she hoped to see: Colfax.

“It’s great that three of the four teams out of our league made it to the semifinals,” said Tikker, who racked up 24 kills and three blocks in the semifinals. “I wish (the Bulldogs) the best of luck, and it’d be great to be able to see them again in the finals.”

Well, she did. Again and again. And they looked very much like a wall of arms.

And, once again, like champions.