Set-Hit Squad Janelle Morrisette, Missy Blackshire Make Close Relationship On Court Pay Dividends

When talking to the setter and leading hitter for the undefeated Ferris volleyball team, you get the feeling that even in conversation, the two are, well, setting each other up for a slam.

Janelle Morrisette and Missy Blackshire have known each other since eighth grade, when they began playing for the same club volleyball team.

Spending so much time together on the court, they’ve developed a rhythm that’s not only helped Ferris finish off opponents, it helps the two players finish each other’s sentences.

“I suppose we have an advantage because we’ve played together …” Morrisette sets.

“… For so long. It’s cosmic,” Blackshire spikes. “We know what each other is thinking.”

In conversation, hitters get to set, too.

“I can basically tell when Janelle is going to set me …” Blackshire sets.

“… And then she just hits it awesome,” Morrisette finishes.

The relationship between setter and hitter on the most successful volleyball team in Saxon history, so far, can’t be explained entirely by simple technical precision and good communication skills. Their coach isn’t able to define it, either.

“I swear, they have almost an ESP thing going,” Stacy Ward said.

The numbers on the two players are impressive.

Morrisette had 450 regular-season assists and a .337 kill percentage. Blackshire had 182 kills this season and a stellar .269 kill percentage, especially considering that she’s been called on to hit 412 times this year, nearly 100 more attempts than the player with the next highest totals.

Despite their complementary styles, the two players have decidedly different on-court demeanors, Ward said.

Morrisette is reserved, steady, calm. Her expression rarely changes, Ward said.

Blackshire is much more expressive. When she drills a ball to the floor in an opponent’s court, she whoops it up.

“That girl definitely has some fast-twitch muscle fibers,” said Ward, describing Blackshire’s aerial displays at the net. In addition to her kill ratio, Blackshire has a team high 49 blocks, averaging more than three per game.

As eighth-graders, the two began playing for the New Balance X-treme volleyball club. Coach Pam Parks, who also coaches the Eastern Washington University women’s team, said Morrisette showed the same consistency and unshakability four years ago.

Ironically, Blackshire, who is now perhaps the best hitter in the Greater Spokane League, couldn’t spike to save her life.

“She (Blackshire) had a pretty good arm swing, but she couldn’t hit the ball,” Parks said.

“But I saw all this incredible potential. I picked her almost to the other coaches’ chagrin.

“They asked me, ‘Why?’ and I told them, ‘Because she’s going to be a great player,”’ Parks said.

That first year, Morrisette was a starter while Blackshire sat, cracking the jokes from the bench that have earned her a reputation as one of the team clowns. Gradually, however, Blackshire got more and more playing time.

It soon became clear the two were developing the kind of setter-hitter relationship that has been so important this year in Ferris’ success, Parks said. Following their undefeated regular season, the Saxons are preparing to play this weekend for seeding at the district tournament.

“They have to have that bond,” Parks said. “As a setter, Janelle has to know Missy is going to be there when the ball is in the air.”

In a moment when their sentences don’t overlap - this time they simply ran together - Blackshire and Morrisette described that trust.

“Missy saves me,” Morrisette sets. “She hits my really horrendous sets really hard.”

“Well,” Blackshire hits, “it makes it a lot more fun to know every ball you’re getting you have a chance to put on the ground.”