NAPAVINE — It took a while for the Napavine Tigers to get going on Tuesday night at home against Kalama. Once they did, they began to resemble the team that qualified for state last season.
Unfortunately for Napavine, the bright spots weren’t enough to dig out of an early two-set hole, as Kalama held on for a 29-27, 25-12, 24-26, 21-25, 15-7 victory.
“I know what they’re capable of, and that was what they’re capable of,” Napavine coach Monica Dailey said of the third and fourth sets. “We should have never been down 2-0 to begin with.”
The Tigers (0-1) couldn’t get out of their own way in the first two sets. In Set No. 1, they came out strong, scoring six of the game’s first seven points. But as the set crept along, more and more unforced errors allowed the Chinooks to get back into it.
The Tigers missed eight serves in the first set, which Kalama ultimately took in extra points.
Missed serves continued to be a theme throughout the night, and by the end, Napavine had missed 21.
“Missed serves really hindered us,” Dailey said. “Those are things that are fixable, so I’m looking forward to getting back into the gym tomorrow and working on that.”
After a poor second set where the Tigers scored just 12 points, Kalama took a 17-11 lead in Set 3 and was on the verge of a sweep.
Instead, Napavine rattled off an 8-1 run to take the lead, and then went on to take the set in extra points. That momentum carried over into the fourth set, which the Tigers won to force a fifth.
“They started talking, and when they talk, they move faster,” Dailey said. “We had a tendency to not get to our spot tonight in those instances where we weren’t talking.”
A Kalama 6-0 run in the fifth and final set put the momentum back in the Chinooks favor, and they finished off the victory.
Jessie McCoy led the team in digs (18) and assists (16), while libero Emily Kang tallied 17 digs. Kennedy Purvis logged eight kills while Nicholle Valentine added seven kills and two block kills. Mya Garrett was the only Tiger to go perfect at the service line.
Dailey expects this Napavine team, which has just six upperclassmen, to cohere and communicate better as the season goes along.
It’ll be needed after last year’s state team lost six seniors.
“Experience wise, we’re young,” Dailey said. “We are very inexperienced right now. But they have a desire and a fire to be better. It’s just gonna take a little bit of time to cultivate that and get us to where we want to be.”
Napavine will head east for its road opener, as they’ll face Mabton.
