The Rainier High School volleyball team capped off its 2024 campaign with a gritty 3-1 road victory over Napavine 25-19, 25-15, 25-27, 25-15 Wednesday, Oct. 30.
Despite the victory in a hostile environment, Rainier head coach Carrie Ooms believes her team left some points on the table, especially in the third set where the Mountaineers were one point away from securing the sweep before Napavine forced a fourth set.
“We get to a point where we don’t fight nearly as hard as we were and we get a little comfortable, and that third set showed that,” she said. “I thought we did a good job recovering when we needed to, but sometimes we’re a little bit slow adjusting.”
Rainier was slow out of the gate in the first set, with Napavine taking an early 5-1 lead on poor serving and offense by the Mountaineers. The Mountaineers woke up in a jolt, blasting the Tigers with a 17-4 run to grab an 18-9 lead. Allyson Ooms was a force to be reckoned with in the opening set with six kills and an ace, leading Rainier to a 25-19 win.
The second set was indicative of both sides of the Mountaineers; they were the aggressors early en route to a 22-6 advantage, but numerous mistakes and communication blunders helped Napavine crawl back with seven straight points. Rainier eventually put away the pesky Tigers 25-15.
The two Central 2B League foes swapped leads in the third set as Rainier jumped in front 5-1 before Napavine’s serves became too much for the Mountaineers to handle and the Tigers answered with six straight. Any time Rainier went on a run, the Tigers answered. Overall, there were five lead changes and eight ties in the third set.
With a 24-23 Rainier lead and a chance to seal the sweep, Katelyn Eckroth’s serve crashed into the net to tie the match, and Napavine scored the next point to give it the match point. The Tigers flopped on their own serve to knot it at 25-25, but they sent the crowd into delirium by scoring the final two points.
“We struggled a few times at our serving at crucial points, and our communication definitely wasn’t what it has been,” Carrie Ooms said. “It was really loud in here.”
Rainier had only played two five-setters in the regular season and showed no interest in playing a third. The Mountaineers led wire to wire in the fourth set led by a flurry of kills by Acacia Murphy and aces by Eckroth, who redeemed herself from her error on the match point in the third by delivering the final blow in the fourth.
“The biggest thing for them was just to focus and push one at a time, focus on every point and keep your foot on the pedal,” Ooms said of Rainier’s improved serving down the stretch.
Allyson Ooms had an impressive finish to her regular season with 19 kills and 13 digs, and Brooklynn Swenson tallied 28 assists, five digs and four aces. Murphy posted 10 kills and three blocks, and Eckroth dished out 13 assists and six aces. Liberty Adair added 15 digs.
Rainier (14-3, 6-2 C2BL) finishes the regular season with two more wins than last year's regular season, a mark that Ooms takes pride in as the Mountaineers enter the postseason.
“It means a lot. It means that I’ve done my job as a coach,” she said. “The girls have learned what they’ve needed to to improve with every game and every practice and that we’re making steps.”
Rainier is locked into the three seed for the district tournament and will face Pacific 2B League two seed Raymond-South Bend (8-6, 5-2 P2BL) on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at Adna High School. Rainier swept Raymond-South Bend on the road on Sept. 12.
