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A year after finishing fourth, Burlington-Edison rolled to a 3-1 win (26-24, 23-25, 25-21, 25-21) to take the Class 2A state volleyball tournament over Tumwater on Saturday night at The Evergreen State College.
“It’s surreal,” said tearful senior outside hitter Lucy Capron, who led the Tigers with 16 digs and 23 kills. “(Three of us) have been playing together since we were 10 years old, and this was our dream.”
An equally emotional Burlington-Edison coach Tawnya Brewer described the feeling as overwhelming.
“This was their dream,” Brewer said in reference to the team’s quartet of seniors. “We’ve talked about it, we’ve pictured how it would look, but last year we just came up short.”
This year, a near untouchable defense buoyed the Tigers – and stunned their opponents.
“We have never seen a team that plays such great defense,” Thunderbirds coach Tana Croft said. “Offense is our key to succeed, but in this one, defense won.”
Still, she said, “I saw moments where I thought we would pull through – I’d say we gave the fans their money’s worth.”
Tumwater took a 23-19 lead in the first game, but slowly the Tigers chipped away and prevailed. The Thunderbirds were able to pull out a close second-set win, but could not find their bearings for the remainder of the match.
Tumwater senior offensive hitter Annie Torfin said it was hard to end the season in front of a large hometown crowd.
“But I’m proud of us,” she said. “We knew they would focus on defense, but we fought, and we gave it our all.”
Burlington-Edison senior setter Katlyn Mataya tallied 14 digs and 40 assists, while her classmate, middle hitter Courtnie Wells, contributed 14 blocks and eight kills.
Tumwater was led by junior setter Courtney Bowen’s 45 assists, Torfin’s 19 digs and senior middle blocker Erika Waldner’s 12 kills.
Earlier in the day, Bowen tallied 34 assists and six digs and Waldner contributed 11 kills to help Tumwater earn a 3-0 semifinal sweep of Selah.
Burlington-Edison defeated White River, 3-1, in the semifinals, led by Mataya’s 30 assists, 10 digs and three kills.
Selah later rebounded for a 3-1 win (25-18, 21-25, 25-13, 25-16) over White River and a third-place finish in the tournament.
“That was a great finish, and it’s nice to finish strong,” Selah coach Kay Aberle said.
White River coach Strydar Argo said that a lack of intensity contributed to his team’s fourth-place finish.
“We came out flat and played the entire match flat,” he said. “We got killed by a team we should have competed with.”
Anacortes placed fifth after defeating Pullman, 3-2 (19-25, 24-26, 25-22, 25-19, 16-14). The Seahawks rebounded from a 2-0 deficit to take the final three sets; the Greyhounds finished sixth.
In its first state appearance since 1990, Centralia placed eighth after falling to seventh-place Black Hills, 3-2 (25-17, 27-25, 25-27, 23-25, 11-15).
