Columbia volleyball improves to 4-1

That fact was not lost on Coach Heidi Shultz. “We’re up for a challenging week,” she said. “I think the girls are excited,  getting back to playing league and seeing what they can do.”

The Bruins defeated visiting Riverside of Boardman in straight sets on Sept. 20 and followed that with a 3-0 home win over Tenino on Sept. 22. Sonya Rubio had eight kills and teammate Jessica Polkinghorn seven against Tenino.

“Sonya Rubio is really stepping up,” Shultz said. “I had her hitting outside. For not having played for a few years, she seems to be really stepping up and contributing.

“Those two are stepping up. In practice we’ve been working on Jesse to hit harder. She’s been doing that and Sonya, too.”

Shultz also has been slowly adding intricacies to the Bruin offense. “We’ve been working on quick sets and slides with Sara (Miller) our other middle. That’s what we’ve been working on; trying a few more, little tricky stuff.”

Sydney Aman had eight aces against Tenio. Aman and Macee Barnes have been two of the more consistent servers for the Bruins. “Both those two are serving well for us,” Shultz said. “And, our defense continues to be going a good job back there.”

That defense will be tested in the Trico matches this week, something Shultz said her players are looking forward to experiencing. “We’ll look to improve on our service receive, just to not making errors, even if we’re just passing it up, keeping it off the ground (vs. directing the ball),” she said. “That’s the name of the game in serve receive and it will be against Castle Rock.

“It will be good to get into league and to get those girls a little intensity. Sometimes when you play teams that are a little bit less skilled … I’m just looking forward to league … seeing what we can do.”

Castle Rock has two all-league middle players and an all-league setter, Shultz said.