Columbia faces final week coming off two losses

Columbia was scheduled to play a district cross-over match Oct. 26 at Montesano (10-4 overall) before its final league match Thursday vs. unbeaten Castle Rock. The Rockets are No. 2 in the WIAA Class 1A volleyball rankings (as of Oct. 24). Columbia will honor its seniors, playing in their final home match, on Thursday.

Columbia Coach Heidi Shultz said fatigue — onset by a week of homecoming activities — contributed somewhat to the King’s Way and La Center losses. “We just looked tired,” she said. Despite the loss to King’s Way, Columbia was able to earn a tiebreaker advantage over the Knights by winning a set. The Bruins swept King’s in their match Oct. 5. That, combined with the 3-1 King’s win last week, gave Columbia a 4-3 set advantage — which is what the Trico uses to break ties when seeding for district tournament play.

If this week’s matches go to form — the favorites win — Columbia and King’s will tie for third place in the Trico standings. The top four teams advance to the district tournament against the top four teams from the Evergreen League.

The Bruins should be a bit more rested by that time, with homecoming activities behind them. “They got 19 aces against us; we were not moving very well,” Shultz said of Columbia’s match against La Center. “I thought we played pretty well against La Center,” Shultz said of her team accomplishing its goals of improved serving and passing. “We passed much better.”

The coach said the Bruins also showed improvement from the service line, but so did La Center, and its 19 aces. Hannah Polkinghorn led the offense with nine kills and six aces, and senior teammate Ella Wilson added eight kills.

“The games were pretty close,” Shultz said. “The second we just jumped out ahead and at one point it was 16-4.”

Polkinghorn served 12 successive points in that set and the Bruins tied the match, 1-1. La Center won the third set and the fourth was tied 21-21 when a reversed call on a line judgment ruling shifted momentum to La Center, Shultz said. Columbia lost serve and then the match, 27-25.

“I felt we were much more competitive with them (vs. the first meeting this season) and the games felt like we had a chance in all of them,” Shultz said, looking ahead to a possible rematch in the district playoffs.