NEA duo falls into consolation bracket

YAKIMA – Freeman coach Eva Jansen hoped youthful exuberance might be enough to keep her team close to highly regarded Cascade and make an upset possible on Friday morning in the first round of the State 1A volleyball tournament at the SunDome.

But the defending champion Kodiaks simply imposed their collective will on the inexperienced Scotties, knocking Freeman – the third-place finisher in 2013 – into the consolation round with a 25-19, 23-25, 25-21, 25-18 win.

“We have a lot of inexperience and it showed today,” Jansen said “When we finally got into a rhythm, they changed things up and got us right back out of sync.”

Freeman then advanced to the consolation semifinals by knocking Kalama out of the tournament, 25-23, 25-23, 13-25, 20-25, 15-9. The Scotties will play Forest Ridge today at 9 a.m. A win in that contest would advance the Scotties to the seventh/eighth-place game later in the day.

Jensen noted that her hope was that her players wouldn’t get caught up on being on a big stage. “I was hoping that they would just not worry about things and play, and we did for a while.”

But not for long enough.

Friday was not a good day for Northeast A League teams.

Lightly regarded Granger stunned second-ranked Lakeside with a five-set win in the first round.

Lakeside – the fourth-place finisher in 2013 – can now finish no better than seventh. 

Lakeside appeared to be in control, winning sets one (25-19) and three (25-16) but Granger forced a fifth set with a 25-19 win in the fourth.

The Spartans led 14-10 in the fifth set but Lakeside rattled off five straight points to take a 15-14 lead. Granger then scored three straight points to advance.

The Eagles knocked off King’s Way Christian, 16-25, 25-15, 25-23, 23-25, 15-12 in the consolation round to advance. They will play Tenino at 9 a.m. this morning. A win there would advance Lakeside to the seventh/eighth-place game.