Selah, Grandview and Ellensburg all will vie for
state trophies when the Class 2A volleyball tournament starts today in
the SunDome. All three won hardware a year ago — the Vikings and
Bulldogs in the Class 3A tournament — and all are ranked among the top
10 in the state.
But they enter today's tournament with different
roles. Selah and Grandview are favorites; Ellensburg is the wild card.
The Vikings are the heaviest of the two CWAC
favorites right now after sweeping the Greyhounds 25-22, 25-17, 25-18 to
take the district championship. The win moved Selah to the No. 2 ranking
in the state and dropped Grandview from the top ranking to fourth.
While Selah coach Kay Aberle described the match
as the best of the year for her Vikings, Grandview coach John LaFever
did not have the same to say about his Greyhounds. The loss was the
team's first of the season, helping relieve the pressure of going
undefeated and give the team plenty to work on in practice.
"We had a list of some faults they exposed in
what we're doing," LaFever said. "So then we looked at corrections and
then we'll see what we'll do."
As for the loss, LaFever didn't expect the CWAC
to be full of easy three-game sweeps.
"We knew there was a possibility to lose
sometime," he said. "This is a heck of a conference."
Grandview did hand Selah its only league loss of
the season, so the two teams enter the state tournament with a 1-1
record against each other and a great possible showcase to settle the
series — the state championship at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Though there are
plenty of potential roadblocks along the way.
One of the most potentially dangerous teams,
especially in Grandview's bracket, is Ellensburg. The Bulldogs pulled
together at the end of last season to roll through the Class 3A
tournament and reach the championship game — a loss to then Mid-Valley
rival Selah.
Ellensburg coach Tara Affholter sees this team
coming together at the end of the season just like last year. The
Bulldogs needed time to mesh after returning five players from last
year's squad while playing tough opponents like Grandview, Selah,
Othello and Prosser.
Ellensburg also had to make due until early October
without Becca Sharon, who was sidelined with a finger injury from the
summer fastpitch season. So even with the 6-foot-3 Kayla Standish at the
net, there was little coasting for the young Bulldogs (9-4 in league).
All the tough-love learning has paid off. After
taking Grandview to four games in the district tournament, losing 30-28,
23-25, 25-19, 25-22 in the semifinals, Ellensburg bounced back with a
with a 25-19, 25-23, 25-23 victory against East Valley for the third and
final state berth. An impressive showing that made the coach of the
district champions take notice of the Bulldogs.
"Ellensburg is one of the most-improved team in
the league," Selah coach Kay Aberle said. "They've got some young
players and as they get experience they just keep getting better."
Sharon's absence allowed other players like
Sarah Lutovsky, Tonya Fischer and Liz Shenyer to get extra experience.
Now with her back playing the right side and helping as the team's
second setter to Katie Kelleher, the offense is starting to click with
Standish and Talia Venera in the front row.
What Affholter credits as the team's biggest
improvement this season is defense. Something the Bulldogs will need to
pull off another big run through the state tournament.
"We had to get in the mindset, you know, that
nothing in our area is going down; we're not going to give up on a
ball," Affholter said. "We had some great plays (at districts) — balls
at the beginning of the season we would have let fly and let drop.
"... We did a lot of drills where we had to get
on the floor. We're no longer hesitant going to the floor. The floor is
our friend."
Just how nice the SunDome floor is to teams from
the CWAC is yet to be seen.
