Bruins still entertain district volleyball tourney hopes

Columbia (3-9 Trico) entered the week with two regular season matches remaining, both at home: Oct. 29 vs. Castle Rock (4-8) and Oct. 31 vs. Stevenson (9-3). Columbia needs to win both of those matches to reach five wins and be able to potentially tie either Kalama (4-8) or Castle Rock for fifth place in the Trico. The fifth-place team qualifies for a play-in match against the fourth-place team from the Evergreen Conference, with a district tournament berth at stake.

“We need to win next week to be in the running, so that’s exciting that we still have a chance,” Shultz said of a playoff spot.

The highlight of the week was the 3-1 win over Kalama, a team which had beaten Columbia, 3-2, earlier this season. Shultz said equally as important was her players’ ability to be resilient when things weren’t going their way.

“The girls played great. They played really well and got after it,” Shultz said. “Even after we got down the second game, I think it was 10-0 before we were able to rotate out of that rotation. Sometimes nothing goes right. [Despite that] the girls were still able to get back into the game.”

Columbia got off to a fast start against Kalama on the Chinooks’ home court. A Sara Miller kill, and a Fiona Grabb stuff block gave the Bruins a 19-12 lead and forced a Kalama timeout. The set got close from then on, with Kalama taking the lead at 23-22 before Columbia earned a side out. Back-to-back kills by Grabb and Kiana Chambers gave the Bruins the win.

Kalama bolted to a 10-0 lead in set No. 2. The Columbia team of, say, a month ago may have packed things in, but the Bruins battled back to within 16-12 before losing 25-16. The final two sets went in Columbia’s favor, 25-23. Josie Dickey’s serving provided a spark for the Bruins in the third set, her ace giving the visitors a 23-18 lead.

“We’ve been talking about being resilient and just getting to the next points and letting that last point go,” Shultz said. “Most of the time volleyball ends in an error. We’ve been really trying to focus on starting the first game really well and knowing that we can still come back.”

Columbia led midway through the fourth set, 17-13, after successive stuff blocks from Grabb and Miller. Kalama went on a run, outscoring Columbia 8-2, before Joella Posini’s kill shot stopped a 3-0 Kalama scoring spurt. A passing error and two hitting errors by the hosts led to the final three points for Columbia.

Columbia wasn’t as sharp as it was against Kalama in the 3-1 loss to King’s Way (9-3). The Bruins lost the first set 27-25 but bounced back in the second for a 25-21 win. A service run by Chambers helped Columbia take control of set No. 2, as the Bruins went from a 10-7 deficit to an 18-10 lead.

King’s Way won the third and fourth sets by identical 25-18 scores. The third set was tied at 13 when King’s Way was able to pull away, in part because of numerous Columbia hitting errors. Columbia led 9-7 in set No. 4, but King’s Way took control with 10 of the next 15 points.

Columbia missed only four serves in the win at Kalama, vs. 14 missed serves against King’s Way — in the same number of sets. “That really hurt us against King’s Way because those games were close, too,” Shultz said. “We did some other things that kept us in those games.”

Against King’s Way, Miller had 18 kills — a career high — hitting .500 for the match. Chambers added 11 kills — with just three errors — Grubb had four kills and Hamilton had three from her setter position. Hamilton added a 22-for-22 service performance with four aces, 35 assists and nine digs.

“Being resilient,” Shultz said. “That’s what we’re trying to do here. They’ve not gotten down and they continue to work hard in practice and want to improve and have made vast improvements."