Back from the beach, Maia Nichols returns to help Capital defend 3A state volleyball title

Six seniors, including first-team all-state selections Elise Meath and Tia Grow, provided the structure a year ago as Capital High School claimed its first Class 3A state volleyball championship.

This fall, another strong senior class, including co-captains Betsy Knutson-Keller and Teagan Jones, will help fuel the Cougars’ title defense.

But for the third year, a younger player coming up behind all that veteran talent is the spark.

Maia Nichols, a junior 5-foot-8 outside hitter who spends most of her volleyball year on the sand, was crowned the MVP of the 3A state tournament and later named the 3A co-player of the year by the Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association after recording 326 kills and 238 digs.

She’s also a co-captain this season. And Knutson-Keller and Jones don’t mind conceding the spotlight to a player they’ve always recognized as an upcoming star.

“We all knew who Maia was right off the bat,” said Knutson-Keller, a 5-11 opposite hitter.

“It wasn’t really a surprise when she came out hitting bangers all day and getting MVP. She’s been playing so long, and her parents have been such a part of the volleyball community.”

Nichols made varsity as a freshmen, helping the Cougars to a fourth-place finish at the state tournament in 2016. The season was one of uncertainty for her, though.

“I was really quiet my freshman year, I wasn’t super outgoing,” she said. “I was afraid everyone would hate me for playing over them.”

She needn’t have worried, says Jones, who was been Nichols’ neighbor in Olympia since the two entered kindergarten a year apart.

“There’s no jealousy, we all want to win, and we all want to win together. Everyone is so supportive of everybody,” she said. “It’s not a common thing that a small group of girls works so well together. All of our team is each others’ No. 1 fan.”

Starting with Nichols.

“It was a really cool to be MVP, but I could not have done it without every other girl on that court,” she said. “They pushed me every day to be the player I am. Honestly, we should all spread the love. We should all be MVP because we all won state.”

But, as Capital coach Katie Turcotte has made clear to her seven returnees throughout summer workouts and leadership meetings, “the past is the past.”

“We need to keep our core values the same, but approach it a little bit differently,” said Knutson-Keller of the challenge of defending a title. “Last year, we were an underdog coming from out of the blue. This year everyone’s going to have their best games against us.”

Turcotte points out all three of her captains’ improvement both as players and leaders during the offseason.

“We had a great senior class last year,” she said. “But the seven returning are really solid players. We have at least one player at every position who was on the team and got playing time last year.”

Much of Nichols’ improvement comes from her devotion to beach volleyball, where she is paired with her sister and sophomore Cougars teammate, Maddie, and where she plans to spend future years as a collegiate athlete.

“When you train in the sand, it’s much harder to jump so, getting back on the hardwood, she’s increased her vertical,” Turcotte said. “It helps her ability to read the ball. On the beach, you’re playing doubles, so your anticipation has to be better.

“It’s fun to have her back in the gym with us. She brings a lot of dynamics to the team with her defensive ability and her ability to take some really good swings in the front row.”

There’s one painful piece to the transition Nichols has yet to make.

“She’s had a couple of plays where she went for it like she was on the sand and remembered the floor’s kind of hard,” Turcotte said.

Beach volleyball at the NCAA level is less than a decade old. It began with many women playing both indoor in the fall and on the sand in the spring. Now some programs are entirely separate.

“I’ll probably play just beach in college,” said Nichols, who hopes to commit early to a college program later this academic year.

Meanwhile, she gets to play for Capital not only with her neighbor Jones, but sister Maddie, a sophomore, as well.

“When Devyn (Oestreich, who scored the championship-winning point at state) and Maddie came in as freshmen last year they helped us out a ton,” Nichols recalled. “It’s awesome having my sister on the team. I’ve played with her since she was in third grade. We even played soccer together since before kindergarten.”