Ellen Shaw Colville Year: Senior Sport: Volleyball Position: Setter

Ellen Shaw would prefer to smash the volleyball.

But Colville coach Missy Bennett needed a setter for her relatively inexperienced team. Shaw was a setter as a freshman before discovering the hitters’ joy of “getting a little more aggression going there.”

“Our (1998) setter graduated, so I guess I was the next one in line,” Shaw said.

The move has worked well. Shaw’s Indians, in their first year up from Class 2A to 3A, are in third place in the Border League with a 4-2 record. Washington’s other teams in the BL are a combined 3-15.

Colville was Great Northern League co-champion during Shaw’s junior year. The Indians lost the state tournament title match.

“I kind of wished we could stay in the Great Northern, because we had those friendships and rivalries,” Shaw said.

Shaw was second-team all-GNL in volleyball last year and was a first-team selection twice as a softball shortstop. She is also Colville’s point guard in basketball.

Shaw, the school’s Associated Student Body vice president, has a 4.0 grade-point average. She recently visiting Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

“If I go to college, it will be for academics first and athletics second,” said Shaw, whose dream is to study film production.