Garfield-Palouse takes care of some ‘unfinished business’

Last year, in a state semifinal against Riverside Christian, Garfield-Palouse came up empty.

This year, the Vikings’ motto was “Unfinished Business,” which they finished by sweeping past Riverside Christian and then knocking off Davenport for the 2004 State B championship.

Gar-Pal (21-0) defeated Davenport 25-23, 25-14, 25-15, surviving a difficult first game and then coasting to the finish to bring the state title back to Hyphenation Nation – rural Eastern Washington – where it spent 25 of its first 26 years.

“It’s fantastic. I’m just so proud of these girls,” Vikings head coach Ron Dinsmoor said. “That’s a pretty big goal to set after last year, and they stuck to it.”

Davenport (21-10) led 20-18 in the first game, but Gar-Pal went on a 5-0 run, getting three kills from junior Dottie Kite and an ace from senior Brenda Hershaw. The Gorillas got back within a point, but a Kasey Manning kill and a point from Holli Holbrook gave the Vikings the first game.

Gar-Pal didn’t allow Davenport back in the game, as the Gorillas only held one lead in the final two games at 2-1 in game three.

“What a great day,” said Dinsmoor, who also coached Gar-Pal’s 1999 championship team. “You can’t ask for a better finish. We really put an exclamation point on it. We didn’t lose a game, 3-0 and 3-0. They really played their best volleyball today.”

Gar-Pal’s championship was almost just icing on the cake after knocking off top-ranked and undefeated Riverside Christian of Yakima in the semifinals 25-23, 25-22, 25-15.

“Last year, we lost the third game to Riverside Christian,” said senior middle blocker Monica Boone. “We beat them this year in the third game, that was kind of what got us ready for the championship game. We were like, ‘Okay, we beat them, now we can go play relaxed, and win, lose or draw it’s going to be a good game.’ “

Again, the first game was the most important for the Vikings, as Riverside Christian had not faced a recent challenge.

Gar-Pal came out as the aggressors, jumping ahead 6-2 in the first game and playing a back-and-forth match until Riverside Christian went on a four-point run to take its first lead at 19-18. After a Vikings timeout, Gar-Pal went on a mini-spurt to take a 22-20 lead before the Crusaders came back to tie.

A kill from Manning and an ace by Kite gave the Vikings a 24-22 lead, but a kill by Sharelle Wells of RC brought it back to a one-point game. The next point would belong to the Vikings, as Holbrook found Boone, who split defenders for the game-winning point.

Gar-Pal led by as much as nine in the second game, but held off a late run by Riverside Christian for the win.

The third was a formality, as Gar-Pal used an early 9-1 run to put away the Crusaders.

“We really talked about coming out aggressive on the bus,” Boone said. “We kind of meditated and visualized on how to play well and made sure that we stayed calm and composed.”

Davenport, which starts four sophomores and two juniors, reached the finals with a very hard-fought four-game win over sixth-ranked Pomeroy.

Pomeroy took the first game 25-16, and led the second most of the way before a 9-3 Davenport run evened up the match and gave the Gorillas the momentum.

“I think we started passing the ball,” Davenport head coach Pete Schweiger said. “We kind of capitalized on some of their errors, and got the momentum for game three. We just found a few holes in their defense.”

Davenport took game three 25-16, and found themselves down in the fourth, 17-16. The Gorillas then rattled off nine of the final 12 points to take the match 25-20. Most impressively, all six players on the floor contributed a point during the run.

“It’s been pretty much a team effort,” Schweiger said. “We don’t worry about stats, they hardly look at them.”

Lind-Ritzville (21-12) fell in the fifth/eighth place game 22-25, 25-19, 25-18, 27-29, 15-13.

Curlew (18-6) and Almira/Coulee-Hartline (16-9) dropped their first matches of the day and did not place. Curlew lost to fourth-place DeSales 22-25, 19-25, 25-22, 25-21, 15-5. ACH fell to seventh-place Orcas Island 25-16, 25-21, 28-26.

Pomeroy rebounded to win the third-place game, knocking off Riverside Christian 25-18, 21-25, 12-25, 25-22, 25-12.