The Port Angeles volleyball team doubled the school’s state wins with one victory at the Class 2A tournament this weekend.
That was the Roughriders’ only win, though, as they were knocked out in the fifth-place semifinals to go 1-2 at state.
The Riders went two-and-out last year, and the only other time they were at state — in 1989 — they also went 1-2.
All three North Olympic Peninsula volleyball teams that made it to state struggled as Crescent and Neah Bay both went two-and-out at the 1B championships.
Each faced potent top-10 teams early on and couldn’t quite get over the hump.
For the Riders, they defeated unranked Ephrata 3-1 in the first round but then lost 3-0 to No. 3 Tumwater in the championship quarterfinals at The Evergreen State College in Olympia on Friday.
The Riders beat Ephrata 25-19, 25-9, 20-25, 25-18. Port Angeles played Tumwater tough in the first two games, losing 26-24, 25-22, 25-16.
On Saturday morning, Port Angeles was bumped from the tourney by No. 4 Anacortes, 3-1, in four barn-burner games. The scores were 25-23, 22-25, 25-22, 25-21
Anacortes, which ended up claiming fifth place, had lost 3-1 to No. 2 Selah in the quarterfinals.
The Riders (17-5) had one of their best seasons, losing only once in Olympic League and regular-season action, once in the league tournament and once at the 2A West Central District championships.
Senior hitter Kiah Jones was voted league MVP while Lauren Norton was named league defensive player of the year and setter Emily Drake made the all-league first team.
1B tourney
YAKIMA — The Crescent Loggers and Neah Bay Red Devils both struggled at the SunDome but the youthful Red Devils improved tremendously from last year’s performance.
“I’m really proud of what my girls did at state,” Neah Bay coach Sharon Kanichy said.
“Our girls played with a positive attitude the entire tournament. They played their hearts out, and they played like they belonged in the state tournament.”
That was a major improvement over the performance of last year’s team, Kanichy said.
The Red Devils lost 3-1 to No. 6-ranked Moses Lake Christian Academy in the first round, and then lost 3-0 to defending state champion and No. 2-ranked Almira/Coulee-Hartline in the consolation quarterfinals on Friday.
“My group was up for it,”Kanichy said. “They worked hard to win those games.”
And they did it with five eighth graders, two freshmen and two sophomores.
Neah Bay had just one junior and four seniors on the team, with one of the seniors a first-year player.
All this youth can mean nothing but good things for the Red Devils in the years to come.
“That will help us out,” Kanichy said.
Neah Bay will have only one senior next year but a lot of experience on a still-young team.
Moses Lake beat the Red Devils 25-6, 22-25, 25-14, 26-24.
“That first-game score was purely because of nerves,” Kanichy said. “And we made several mistakes in the third game or else we would have been right there.”
The Red Devils played right with strong Moses Lake in the second and fourth games.
Almira/Coulee-Hartline won 25-16, 25-19, 25-13.
For the tournament, Morgan Buzzell served five aces while Holly Greene also had five aces and earned a kill at the net.
Brandy Swan collected four aces while Rebecca Thompson had 10 kills, four blocks and four aces.
Kaela Tyler had a team-high seven aces and had two kills and a block while Courtney Winck had six kills and four blocks.
Crescent, meanwhile, lost 3-0 to Seton Catholic in the first round and 3-0 to No. 5 Sunnyside Christian in the consolation quarterfinals Friday.
Seton Catholic won by the scores 25-10, 25-17, 26-24 while Sunnyside Christian won 25-18, 25-18, 25-15.
Seton Catholic, unranked, made it to the championship semifinals before losing.
Sunnyside Christian, meanwhile, captured eighth place in the tournament.