Wenatchee outlasts North Creek in five sets for WIAA 4A volleyball title, ending 40-year drought
YAKIMA, Wash. – It had been so long since Wenatchee had won a state volleyball championship – heck, even trophied – that the Panthers’ opponent in Saturday night’s Class 4A final, Bothell’s North Creek, was more than 30 years from being built.
No matter, third-seeded Wenatchee looked every part of a championship team, outlasting the No. 4 Jaguars in five sets - 27-25, 18-25, 25-12, 23-25, 15-9 - in the Yakima Valley SunDome for its second state crown - and first since 1983.
“I just couldn’t be more proud of our girls,” said Panthers coach Jordan McGregor fighting through tears. “It just comes down to who wants it more and who executes. I told them to have heart and play the best game that they have yet.”
Message received.
Paced by junior setter Ava Jo Berry, the player of the year in the Columbia Basin Big Nine Conference, Wenatchee more than held its own at the net against the taller North Creek lineup that features a half dozen players 5-foot-11 or taller.
Seniors Sasha Dandridge and Bri Sackman, junior Keira Demerjian and sophomore Rylee Jone were the primary beneficiaries of Berry’s dishes, putting away dozens of kills while trying to slow the Jaguars’ attack led by Eastern Washington-recruit Quincy Moran.
“Going five sets is what state should be like,” Berry said. “They put up a great game but our team just fought as hard as we could and I’m so incredibly proud of each and every one of them.”
And her coach couldn’t speak more highly of her team’s engine, quickly pointing out she still has another season to go.
“She makes so much happen and she’s the glue of our team,” McGregor said. “That kid is so special and I’m so proud of her.”
North Creek entered last year’s tournament unbeaten and seeded No. 2 with state player of the year Kyleene Filimaua, who’s already a lineup mainstay for 25th-ranked Florida State, leading the way.
But the Jaguars were stunned in a four-set opener by 15th-seeded Olympia. North Creek bounced back to eventually finish eighth for the program’s first state trophy, but the loss was not forgotten.
Payback came Saturday morning when North Creek beat top-seeded Olympia in a five-set thriller of a semifinal.
The seven-year old school has two trophies in three state appearances.
Mead players and coaches Celebrate Saturday night's victory against Lake Washington in the Class 3A championship match in the Yakima Valley SunDome.
Photo by Jerrel Swenning
CLASS 3A
Mead once again state champs
After a one-year abdication, the Mead volleyball team reigned again Saturday night.
Runners-up to Lakeside of Seattle a year ago, the third-seeded Panthers swept No. 4 Lake Washington 25-19, 25-23, 25-18 in the Class 3A championship match in the Yakima Valley SunDome. It’s the Panthers’ second title in three years and ninth overall.
Save for a final rally for the Kangaroos in which they scored five straight points while Mead sat on match point, the Panthers controlled the action the better part of the match.
“We had a lot of tough matches earlier in the season that really pushed us,” Panthers coach Shawn Wilson said. “We kind of found our rhythm, about the last three weeks of the season we’ve been playing at the top of our game.”
A back-and-forth opening set turned on a dink by all-state Mead setter Brielle Wilson to knot the score at 18-18. From there, the Panthers closed with a 7-1 run.
Lake Washington, making just its second state appearance, continued to push Mead in the second set before a block from Ava Durgan pushed the Panthers to the cusp of another title.
After a spike by Ashley McMaster pulled Lake Washington to within a point early, Mead used an 11-1 run to take control.
“We’ve definitely been working on our consistency all year and it paid off in this final match,” Brielle Wilson said.
She paced the Panthers offense, feeding senior Lorna Selby, juniors Durgan, Audriana Spielman and Romy Tyler for points.
“She is an excellent ball distributor,” Wilson said. “We have five and she distributes all over the place and it kind of throws defenses off because they don’t know where we’re going.”
Mead dropped just two sets in the SunDome, and handed second-seeded Lynnwood its first loss of the season in a four-set semifinal early Saturday afternoon.
The Panthers finished the season 21-2 with their only losses to 4A seventh-seed Gonzaga Prep, which it avenged, and Post Falls, Idaho.
“It’s nice to contribute to a program that was so dominant back then,” said Wilson, who was an assistant coach under Judy Kight during the Panthers’ title run in the 2000s. “To get two in the last three years is pretty exciting.”
Beside the pair of 3A championships, the Panthers also won 4A titles in 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2005 and 2003.
Lake Washington was eighth a season ago.
