The Rainier High School volleyball team’s run of dominance over Toledo continued Thursday, Oct. 10 as the Mountaineers swept the Riverhawks for the sixth straight time, amounting to 17 straight set victories.
Although Rainier won handedly, 25-11, 25-22, 25-14, head coach Carrie Ooms believes her players left their energy in the locker room.
“I wouldn’t say we played super strong, but we did come out and we were still focused. It seems we lacked a little bit of energy,” she said. “While our basics were there, we just didn’t have that energy that we’ve been having.”
Rainier took a sizable lead in the first set before Toledo crawled to within a point on multiple occasions. With a 15-11 advantage, the Mountaineers slammed the door on the Riverhawks with 10 straight points, with Annabelle Whiteman and Acacia Murphy leading the attack late in the first.
In the second set, Ooms emptied her bench and inserted every athlete she had, including eighth graders Lexi Beckman and Courtney Eckroth. The Riverhawks took their first lead of the match early in the second at 8-7, and they kept within four points throughout the frame before their mistakes caught up to them in the waning moments. Murphy and Whiteman once again helped seal the set for Rainier.
Letting the eighth graders loose was part of the plan for Ooms, but as the match progressed, their playing time was shorter than anticipated. The student section chanted “She’s an eighth grader” any time Beckman or Eckroth made a play.
“I wanted to get them a little bit more playing time. I wanted to get them in a little bit more, but it just didn’t happen in the third set,” Ooms said.
Rainier had no trouble with Toledo in the third as the Mountaineers led wire to wire to finish off the sweep. They jump back in the win column after getting swept by Adna on the road on Tuesday, Oct. 8 and improve to 9-2 with a 2-1 mark in the Central 2B League.
“We were a little quiet on the court. Our communication wasn’t as [strong] tonight, but we still pushed through,” Ooms said. “We’re still out there playing not quite our normal game but still playing competitively. It shows we’ve made strides because even when we’re not playing to our potential, we still don’t get down ourselves. You can see that the girls are determined to fight.”
Allyson Ooms led the way with eight kills and 11 digs, while Janess Blackburn tallied eight kills of her own to go along with eight digs. Acacia Murphy recorded seven kills and five blocks, and Brooklynn Swenson and Katelyn Eckroth combined for 27 assists, four aces and no service errors.
Ellie Fallon led the Riverhawks with 14 kills, followed by Abby Umbriaco, who had nine. Fallong also led the team with 13 digs, while Brenna Carver added 12 and Sidney Kruger tallied 10. Kruger also dished out 27 assists.
The Mountaineers will return to Adna on Saturday, Oct. 12 for the Adna Invitational and compete in a pool play tournament with fellow C2BL opponents. C2BL action will return next week with a home match against Toutle Lake (5-4, 1-1 C2BL) on Tuesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m. and on Thursday at Winlock (1-8, 0-2 C2BL) at 7 p.m.
