As one of two returning senior veterans on The Dalles volleyball team, all-league hitter Kathryn Bradford is using this time to be a leader by example and a sounding board for the program with several underclassmen.
“For me being a leader this year, I don’t see this as an opportunity to boss my team around or anything like that, I just want to take the skills I have been taught and be able to pass them down and show the other players what a leader really does,” Bradford said.
Bradford led the team in kills with 70 in league play and she also had the highest hitting percentage. She was tied for second with 84 points, ended up fourth in digs with 56 and tacked on 14 aces, good for fourth on the team.
TD’s only other senior, Jodi Thomasian, a 2016 first-team winner, was the team’s overall leading scorer in league matches with 89 points, and she finished second in blocks with 16 and second in digs with 96. From the service line, she posted a team-leading 21 aces.
Another returning net presence is Bailey LeBreton, a returning honorable mention pick.
Last year, LeBreton posted a team-high 21 blocks, was second in kills with 64 in nine league tilts and was tied for second with a total of 84 points.
The rest of the team has some height, passing ability and an all-around skill set that could help give the squad the push needed to improve upon their four match wins and third-place league finish.
“What is exciting about this team is there is an opportunity to grow,” said head coach Neticia Fanene. “Our players need more development and chance to get up to pace and ready to go. This group has been around volleyball for several years and so it is not a brand-new game to them. What we are really working on now is executing on the basics, going through our plays, and running our offense with hopes of developing enough to be competitive in our league.”
With only three seniors last season, the Riverhawks earned a state play-in match against St. Helens, a season-ending 3-0 sweep loss, but sophomore Breanna Birchfield said several of the players were involved in open gyms, extra practices, camps and gaining experience in the club volleyball circuit this past offseason.
Fanene gave her players a list of things she wanted the players to fine-tune ahead of fall workouts.
“Coach really wanted us to be able to get our serves over and be able to get them in certain spots on the floor and that was one of the requirements to be on the varsity team,” Birchfield said. “They want us to be able to pass well and be consistent on the basics of the game. I think we are getting closer to getting better in those areas, but we will keep working to get us to where we need. Since camp, we have definitely improved as a whole.”
Fanene welcomes in two new coaches, Teresa Morris and Kim Kiser, who take over for long-time assistants Tim Logue and Kelly DeLeon.
Having another voice on the floor is something that could benefit this group moving forward.
“We did get a loss with Tim and Kelly. They both brought great basics to the game and were really great with the girls and were involved with our club team,” Fanene said. “I think we have done a great job of replacing them with Teresa (Morris) and Kim (Kiser). They have experience playing and coaching at several different levels, and so I think that even though we had a door shut on one, we are opening another to keep the pace with what we want to accomplish as a program.”
Defending league champion Hood River Valley is still one of the contenders to make a deep state run this fall, as it returns a solid core from its 25-win campaign.
Pendleton, The Dalles and Hermiston are fighting for the final two state slots.
“I think we have a great opportunity. Last year, every team in our league was young, and so that means everyone will be back,” Fanene said. “It is about us building that confidence from last year. I think we will be seeing everything we saw last year, except for a step better. It is going to be more improvement, faster games, bigger games and so we are better prepared to be competitive against those teams.”
Just two years ago, the Riverhawks won 22 matches, placed second in league and wound up one win shy of vaulting into the state playoff tournament.
Birchfield, Bradford, Thomasian, LeBreton and Lindsi Logue have that extra motivation to put all the pieces together to match the accomplishments of that squad.
“I definitely think that we really want to get back to where we were two years ago,” Birchfield said. “We want to succeed and play well enough to give ourselves an opportunity to play at state and put The Dalles back on the map.”
TD starts the regular season in a multi-team tournament starting at 8 a.m. this Saturday in La Grande.
Commented
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.