Freshman leads Wildcats to state
John Reid, tongue planted firmly in cheek, said Mt. Spokane won the 3A regional volleyball championship Saturday at his school because of his coaching.
However, the way freshman Annie Arnzen played wasn’t a joke.
The 5-foot-9 outside hitter was the most consistent and powerful hitter for the Wildcats as they knocked off North Central, West Valley-Yakima and Shadle Park – in five exciting games – to advance to state tournament in Kennewick next weekend.
The reason Reid was jabbing himself is because he didn’t promote Arnzen to varsity until three weeks ago.
“Good coaching, huh?” he said.
But the Mead district has a policy that freshmen play on freshman teams unless they are exceptional enough to play on varsity.
“We knew she was decent,” Reid said.
But she wasn’t an all-round player until she spent time with freshman coach Dave Whitehead playing every position.
On Saturday she did it all for a team that returned no starters from last year’s team, the first from the school to make state.
“I just love the game,” said Arnzen, who had 19 digs in the championship. “I love the competition. I love to be out there.”
She was speaking for the whole team that also includes four sophomores playing significant roles.
“It was supposed to be a complete rebuilding year,” Reid said. “They do some good things and they really like each other.”
Mt. Spokane started the day with a 25-21, 25-17, 27-25 win over North Central and followed it up with a 25-7, 23-25, 25-9, 25-16 defeat of West Valley (Yakima).
The Wildcats qualified for state with a 22-25, 25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 15-9 win over the Highlanders.
Shadle came back to beat league champion East Valley for the second time Saturday to earn the second spot at state.
In Mt. Spokane’s clincher it was Arnzen’s thundering kill that put the Wildcats up for good, 4-3, as part of a 4-0 surge.
Mt. Spokane closed it out with a 4-1 run, the winner coming on a Katie Karisch back-row kill.
Reid said he has to remind himself to sit back and let the kids play.
“We use the 3 E’s – energy, execute and enjoy,” he said. “If we have two of three, we’ll have success. I know it sounds like a cliché, but it works.”
The Wildcats had an early five-point lead in the first game before Shadle put together a 10-1 run to take control. In the second game, Mt. Spokane built a 20-13 lead with a 6-0 surge and closed it out with an Arnzen kill.
The Highlanders scored the last six points to win the third, but it was the Wildcats scoring the last four points of the fourth game.
“Sometimes you just get down and can’t get back up,” Arnzen said. “Going in, we had beaten Shadle before so we had good confidence, but we knew it would be tough.”
“That was a really good game,” Highlanders coach Brooke Cooper said. “It could have gone either way. They moved the ball around – we couldn’t tell what they were going to do. It was hard to defend. Give Mt. Spokane great props.”
Just a couple of hours later it was East Valley coach Jim Dorr giving credit to the Highlanders.
“They played very well,” he said. “They played great defense. They seemed to be everywhere we were hitting.”
The Knights won the first game 26-24, and had leads of 24-22 in both of the next two games but lost 27-25 and 28-26. Shadle won the last game 25-13.
“It was pretty incredible,” Cooper said. “When faced with their season being over, the girls didn’t panic. It’s our third trip to state in a row. The seniors knew what it took and didn’t panic.”
In the Highlanders’ quick offense, setter Lindsay Niemeier mixed up it with 51 assists and three players had double-figure kills, led by Amy Before with 17 and Sasha Mitchell with 15.
“We stayed aggressive,” Cooper said. “They played to win instead of playing not to lose.”
The Highlanders, who started the day with a 25-10, 25-17, 25-19 win over Sunnyside, won the first matchup with East Valley 25-14, 25-18, 19-25, 25-18.
In between the losses to Shadle, EV eliminated WV (Yakima).