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By Bill Stevenson
Whitman County Gazette 

Oakesdale volleyball wins tournament

Roster down reduced to six players

 

September 23, 2021

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YAKIMA - The Oakesdale Nighthawks volleyball team swooped into the SunDome Volleyball Festival and flew away with the win.

The Yakima area was filled with 80 high school volleyball teams for two tournaments on Sept. 18-19. On Friday it was 32 teams from 1B, 2B, and 1A leagues. Bigger schools played the next day.

"We actually won the tournament," said Coach McKinzie Turner. "It was a really good day for our kids. We played some really tough teams."

The Nighthawks started the tournament with seven players and lost Marilla Hockett to illness. It left Gianna Anderson, Olivia Booth, Payton Davis, Samantha Holling, Bree Rawls, and Jenna Rawls.

Oakesdale played in a pool of four with top-scoring teams meeting to continue with bracket play to determine the festival winner.

"We came out of pool play ranked third by a point," said Turner.

They beat Selah (25-5, 25-10), White Swan (25-12, 25-9), and Wahluke (25-8. 25-19).

"We tried a couple different lineups to see what we wanted to do in bracket play," Turner said.

They went on to defeat College Place (25-21, 25-15), Colfax (25-18, 25-20), and moved into the championship to play Annie Wright Schools Gators from Tacoma.

Oakesdale lost the first set (26-24), on the second set (25-16), and won the last set (15-10) to beat the Gators winning the best two-out-of-three for the championship.

"It was a great day for our kids. They were really tired by the end of the day, but they played with a lot of heart going up against teams with whole benches of subs.," said Turner. "They played teams bigger than them, and with more experience than them ... We played good defense and didn't make a lot of mistakes."

Jenna Rawls and Booth "really stepped up and played positions they don't play very."

Holling grew into her position during her first year starting as a setter.

"Her sets were really amazing. By the end of the tournament, she was a really solid setter."

The six supported each other showing support for the ones out of their normal positions and kept spirits up as the day went on.

"We moved forward together as a team ... we played with a lot of heart," said Turner. "They adjusted and grew ... they were very positive and supportive."

Turner said the experience is going to pay off as the season progresses.

Author Bio

Bill Stevenson, Former Managing Editor

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Bill Stevenson is the former editor of the Whitman County Gazette, Colfax Daily Bulletin and Franklin Connection. He has nearly 30 years of journalism experience covering news in Eastern Washington.

 

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