At state 1B volleyball tournament

For Klickitat's three seniors, Aryn Davis, Melissa Huwe and Trisheena Keys, and their coach, Kirk Huwe, it wasn't the way they wanted to close out their careers. But they all knew going into the tournament that the competition would be stiff.

"Sprague/Harrington had a good combination of passing and hitting. They placed second last year and this year they won it all," Huwe noted. "Inchelium was a very similar team to us. That final match could have gone either way. As it was, they went on to place fourth by beating Moses Lake Christian."

The Vandals opened the two-day tournament on Friday with a sweep of the Entiat Tigers, winning by scores of 25-19, 25-11, 25-19.

The victory earned the Vandals a spot in Friday's quarterfinals opposite the Falcons of Sprague/Harrington.

Klickitat never got its game untracked, however. It trailed start to finish in all three sets, losing 25-12, 25-12, 25-19.

The loss sent the Vandals into the consolation bracket, where they met the Inchelium Hornets on Saturday in a loser-out match that turned into the tournament's second and last five-set marathon.

Klickitat dropped the first set, 25-20, after spotting Inchelium an 8-0 lead, but came back in the seesaw second to win 26-24 on a service ace by freshman Tia Spino.

In the third set, the Vandals took control with a six-point run that netted them an 18-12 lead. They then finished off their 25-17 win by scoring the final four points.

The fourth set featured 12 ties and 11 lead changes before the Hornets pulled out a 26-24 win that tied the match at 2 sets apiece.

Klickitat, however, got the drop on Inchelium at the start of the fifth set tiebreaker, taking a 6-0 lead. But Inchelium inched its way back into contention, eventually forging at tie at 8-all.

The Vandals took a timeout to slow the Hornets down. But when play resumed, Inchelium tacked on three more points for an 11-8 lead.

Klickitat finally halted Inchelium's six-point run with a kill by freshman Zoe Lindner, but it wasn't enough for the Vandals to regain the momentum.

The Hornets closed out the Vandals' season--and Huwe's 26-year coaching career--by scoring four of the final six points for a 15-11 win.

As disappointing as the loss was, Huwe could find no fault with his team's effort.

"I thought the team played well," he said. "It would have been nice to trophy, however, it was nice to finish the season playing well in a close match."