The 2014 season was memorable in many ways for The Dalles volleyball team.
Under first-year head coach Neticia Fanene, the Riverhawks quadrupled their match win total, doubled their league win total and punched a state-playoff ticket under the watch of the Columbia River Conference’s Coach of the Year winner.
With a returning group of seven seniors, four juniors and two underclassmen, The Dalles is ready to take another step forward.
Under the bright lights of the refurbished Kurtz Gym, senior setter Savannah Bass expressed the feeling of anticipation felt by the players in the locker room.
“I think the new gym makes us excited for the new season,” Bass said. “It makes a new everything, so it makes us all happy. I think it is going to be a good year, we have a good team, a new gym and everything is new and that makes it exciting.”
Joining Bass are fellow seniors Deysi Velador, Natalie Moleli, Lori Cimmiyotti, Maddy Bradford, Sierra Renard and Keatin Logue.
In her four years of volleyball, Bass has never seen a more determined group of athletes.
She said they want to persevere and work their hardest in every practice drill.
It is up to the veterans to help bring along some of the younger and less experienced varsity players like Sierra Watson, Jodi Thomasian, Iliana Telles, Kayla Seibel, Jocelyn Hernandez and Bailey LeBreton
“We have a bunch of new girls and they are younger and really good,” Bass said. “I think it is important for us to encourage them a lot. I think the older senior girls have to be bigger leaders and do everything we can to get everyone playing better as a team. If we can come together, I think we can be very good.”
Last season, The Dalles picked up tournament wins over South Albany, Central and Seton Catholic, out of Washington, on their way to a pair of tournament championship berths in Parkrose and Hood River.
They also scored a two-match sweep over crosstown rivals, Hood River Valley, the last coming on Oct. 21, 2014 to secure a postseason qualification.
In their first playoff match since the 2011 campaign, the Riverhawks lost in a three-set sweep to Wilsonville.
Bradford pinpointed unforced errors as an element of the game this team needs to improve in order to match or exceed last year’s accomplishments.
“I think it is just about practicing hard and being more precise. Not necessarily playing safe, but kind of working better at having better skills,” Bradford said. “It is up to us to practice the way we are supposed to, so that when we have our matches, everything is second nature and through repetition, we can carry it over in our matches. If we practice hard, play more precise, come together as a team and leave it all on the floor, we can have a great season.”
Playing without two all-league players will be tough, but Fanene has a perennial all-league player in Cimmiyotti ready to keep her level of play at an elite level.
In her final two league games, Cimmiyotti, who was a first-team all-league pick in 2014, averaged eight kills, seven digs and two blocks a match.
Cimmiyotti finished with 64 kills, 100 digs and 24 blocks overall in nine league matches.
She will have a new setter this year in Bass.
“Everything starts with the pass,” Cimmiyotti said. “It goes from the pass to the set and then to the hit. If we are going to win, we have to do all of it well because you can’t win with just the pass, you can’t win with just the set, you have to win with all of those things working together as one.”
Looking at the rest of the CRC, Bradford knows some of the programs lost some solid hitters and players, but that every season, a team reloads its roster to make a state push.
She believes her team has a legitimate shot at finishing in the top-3 to earn a playoff berth.
“Some of these teams have lost some good hitters, but I am never going to underestimate them,” Bradford said. “They are good schools, they are always good competition that seems to pull something from somewhere, so I am ready for it. I am not sure how good they are, but I will never underestimate them.”
The Dalles kicks off its season at 5:15 p.m. Thursday on the road against North Marion.
After that match, TD has its home opener at Kurtz Gym against Ridgeview at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
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