Mead surges to Crossover title

If Spokane’s annual Crossover Classic volleyball tournament was a preview of coming attractions, it promised several postseason blockbusters.

Heavyweights Mead and Eisenhower, last year’s first- and second-place State 4A finishers, slugged it out toe-to-toe for the Crossover championship on Saturday.

Both teams played at spectacular levels, with Mead prevailing in three grueling games, 22-25, 25-23, 25-21.

Along the way, seven of eight tourney quarterfinalists and all four semifinalists were from either the Greater Spokane League or the Big Nine Conference.

Mead defeated Lewis and Clark in one semifinal, and Eisenhower bested Kamiakin in the other.

Holding up and pointing to her tournament bracket, Panthers coach Judy Kight exclaimed, “Here’s district for them and for us, and here’s the regional. You know what? It’s awesome. It gives us a chance to get better and better and better.”

Things couldn’t have been much better than the title match, which featured spectacular volleys. They attacked with uncommon power off a wide variety of play sets and countered with spectacular digs and blocks in the entertaining contest.

Cadet Nikki Hernandez, perhaps the most powerful hitter of her size in the state, had some blistering kills.

“I don’t have very much muscle,” she said afterward, flexing a bicep. “But I torque a lot, and that’s where my power comes from.”

She met her match in an inspired performance by Mead’s Erin Norris.

Norris had two thunderous kills in Mead’s comeback win in the second game. The Panthers trailed 22-20 before outscoring Eisenhower 5-1.

In the tourney decider, Mead broke a 17-all tie on yet another Norris kill, and she scored three more times, including on two blocks of powerful hits from Hernandez.

“It feels really good to know if you go up strong every time you’ve got her,” Norris said.

The Mead-Eisenhower rivalry has included back-to-back regional finals tests, with the Panthers winning both and last year sweeping Ike in the state finals.

This year they were put on a collision course for the title, each winning pools, and winning three straight in the 16-team Buzzie Welch Bracket at University High.

Eisenhower never trailed in the first game, breaking away from a 21-20 advantage to finish the win on a couple of smashes by Hernandez. In the second game, Ike ran off six straight points for a 20-17 lead, but Cassie Dobson outside and Norris brought back the Panthers.

Nicole Solum got the winner on a play that personified the night. She sent a hard hit Ike’s way. It was blocked, a dump attempt by Mead was dug off the floor, only to have Solum finish the rally.

Norris got the Panthers from 18-18 to 23-20 and Dobson scored the final two points with outside blasts.

Hernandez said having her team lose for the first time this year didn’t feel as bad as she thought it would.

“Everything we do in the season builds up to playing them,” she said. “Win or lose, we still look at things to work on and we improved a lot today.”

Her comments were echoed by Kight, saying the first meeting was an indicator of what Mead needed to do to get better.

“It’s always serious and you always want to win because Eisenhower is very strong,” she said. “That was exciting, it really was. That was more exciting than anything (Mead has done) up to now this year.”

Earlier in the day, retired coach Welch was on hand to watch LC play Wenatchee in the quarterfinals. They were his last two teams.

LC finished fourth, losing to Mead and Kamiakin. Mt. Spokane and University, which tied for ninth, were the other Greater Spokane League teams in the quarterfinals.

Among others in the 16-team championship bracket of the 52-team tourney were State 4A qualifiers Heritage and Bethel and locally, surprising 2A Medical Lake and 1A Freeman.

Freeman hung tough with Mt. Spokane in its opener, losing in three games, and wound up tied for 13th with a win over Wilson, a 4A team from Tacoma.