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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Washington volleyball: CV wins first district title

Central Valley’s volleyball team achieved two important firsts within a span of six days.

Kazlyn Roullier totaled 32 kills, Jade Rockwood had 43 assists and Kara Nitteberg added 28 digs on the day as the Bears won their first District 8 4A volleyball tournament on their home court, tripping up main rival University 3-0 in Saturday’s title match.

The honor perfectly complemented the Bears’ first Greater Spokane League title, captured last Tuesday, also at the expense of U-Hi.

“(Winning the GSL) was a lot of pressure off our shoulders, but we wanted to make history today as being the first CV team to win district, so that’s what we set out to do,” Rockwood said.

“These kids who have been committed and in this program for a long time, it’s great for them to see some of that success,” Bears coach Amanda Bailey said.

CV (25-1-1) moved within one win of returning to the State 4A tournament. The Bears will play a winner-to-state match at Richland at 11 a.m. Saturday.

U-Hi (25-4) will need two wins to make the State 4A tournament one year after playing at the State 3A tournament. The Titans will play at 1 p.m. Saturday at Richland against Tuesday’s winner between Gonzaga Prep (17-11) and Pasco.

G-Prep qualified for its first regional in a decade-plus by holding off Mead 3-1 as Rachael Meyer, Maria Adams and Patience O’Neal combined for 24 kills.

“I had a feeling it would come down to this – this match against that team (Mead),” G-Prep coach Jill Benson said. “I kind of had that weird feeling. So I kept reminding them, you deserve to be in this situation. Use that as fuel to light the fire.”

The Bullpups will play at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Pasco.

G-Prep nearly made the title match, starting its day by building a 2-0 lead over U-Hi and leading the fifth game 14-11 before the Titans stormed back.

“Prep gave us quite a scare and frankly we were fortunate to get out of that,” U-Hi coach Mike Summers said. “We showed a lot of character in the fifth game, thanks to our four seniors on the court.”

Mead also gave CV a scare to begin the day, a match the Bears won 3-1. The first game was tied 13 times, including every point from 19-24; the third game was tied at 22 and ended on a disputed touch call; and Mead led the fourth game 18-17 before CV scored five consecutive points.

“We did get pushed today,” Bailey said. “We didn’t play well in the first game against Mead. We had a lot of hitting errors. But we came out better in the second match against U-Hi. The girls got fired up, you know, because that’s our rivalry.”

U-Hi led the first game of the title match 14-12 before CV uncorked a pair of 5-0 runs. The Bears were protecting a 23-22 second-game lead when Keann White and Roullier unleashed big kills. The Titans stormed to a 12-7 third-game lead, made many errors during a 12-0 Bears run, but fought back to trail 24-23 before CV clinched the match.

“I think U-Hi didn’t show up as well as they could have today, but we definitely just kept playing our game and didn’t let any point behind,” Roullier said. … “I think our team is one-of-a-kind.”

“Even in the third set we were down by quite a bit and came back and made it a match,” Summers said. “Ideally, we would have wanted to play better against CV. … Now we have to win two to get to state. The road is a little more difficult.”

District 8 3A

Bailey Hereford totaled 39 digs, Karly Cantu had 40 assists and Arianna Newcomb added 21 kills as Mt. Spokane held off Shadle Park 3-2 in the championship at Mt. Spokane.

Emily Rector tallied 27 digs and two aces for the Highlanders. Both teams advance to regionals next week at Mt. Spokane.

The top-seeded Wildcats (14-3-2) will play Mid-Columbia Conference No. 1 Kamiakin at 1 p.m. for an automatic berth to state. No. 2 Shadle will face Southridge in a loser-out game at 3. The Mt. Spokane-Kamiakin loser and Shadle-Southridge winner will meet at 5 for the second berth to state.

In the tourney opener, Josie Walser had 33 assists and 23 digs as Shadle Park qualified for regional and eliminated Rogers by rallying from a 2-0 deficit for a 3-2 win. Holly Hamblen added 11 kills for Shadle. Mikayla Risinger led Rogers with 33 assists.

District 7 2A

Shalyn Stack had 14 kills and seven digs and Emily Sior added 34 assists as host and top-seeded East Valley defeated Pullman 3-0 in the title match.

Melissa Langerveld had six kills and eight digs for the second-seeded Greyhounds.

Both teams advance to regionals and will play for state berths at 1 p.m. Saturday at Selah against teams from the Central Washington Athletic Conference.

Pullman qualified for regionals by eliminating No. 3 Cheney 3-1. In loser-out openers, Pullman topped No. 6 West Valley 3-0 and Cheney edged No. 4 Clarkston 3-2.

District 7 2B

Amara Huber had 11 kills and 11 digs and Olivia Mellor added seven aces as Colfax (26-2) defeated Northwest Christian 3-0 in the title match at St. George’s.

Kori Goodwin added 25 assists and two blocks for the defending state champions. Madison Schuh had five kills and Belle Potter 12 digs for NWC.

Also at the tourney, Harmony Acuff had 20 kills to guide Reardan to 3-1 win over Davenport in the match for third and fourth places. Chrissy Hannemann had 12 kills for the Gorillas.

Tessa Jantz finished with 11 kills and Jana Mattox had 11 digs as Lind-Ritzville/Sprague topped Wilbur-Creston 3-0 in the match for fifth and sixth places. Jessi Reed had 11 kills for W-C.

Six teams advance to the 2B regional, which begins Tuesday with a play-in game between No. 6 Wilbur-Creston and District 9 No. 3 DeSales. The tournament picks up Saturday at Cheney High. Opening matches are: Colfax vs. LRS, 10 a.m.; Reardan vs. District 9 No. 2 Tri-Cities Prep, 10; Davenport vs. District 9 No. 1 Dayton, 11:45; and NWC vs. Tuesday’s winner, 11:45.