The Chronicle’s 2014 All-Area Volleyball Team. From left: Centralia’s Bryse Gilmore, Napavine’s Mollie Olson, W.F. West’s Julie Spencer, Mossyrock’s Calli Hensch, Tenino’s Taylor Tibbetts, Adna’s Shanay Dotson and Centralia’s Tucker McAuley.
Hensch Headlines This Season’s Crop of the Top Local Volleyball Talent
By Aaron VanTuyl
avantuyl@chronline.com
The Vikings were something of a surprise in the Central 2B League this season, and their star player had more than a little to do with it.
Calli Hensch, Mossyrock’s do-it-all 6-foot middle hitter, led the Vikings to a league championship and the best finish in school history — and earned The Chronicle’s All-Area MVP award to top off her career.
The Central 2B League MVP piled up 426 kills at a 36-percent efficiency rating, served 91 percent (259 of 286) with 35 aces, and added 141 digs and 279 on-target passes to her season totals.
“She’s an all-around excellent player,” Viking coach Alex Nelson said.
Hensch and the Vikings went 8-1 to win the C2BL regular season title, then won their first two matches at the State 2B tournament, eventually finishing fourth.
Hensch wasn’t the only C2BL standout to land on the All-Area squad.
Mollie Olson, an outside hitter from Napavine, was an All-C2BL first-team pick and helped the Tigers trophy at the State 2B tournament. The 5-foot-8 freshman piled up 396 kills, 92 block-kills and 306 digs while serving 87.3 perfect with 81 aces for the District 4 champion Tigers, who went on to finish seventh at state.
Adna’s Shanay Dotson was brutally efficient from the service stripe, missing on just five serves — in 345 attempts — her senior season (99 percent) and adding 35 aces. The outside hitter also piled up 395 kills and led the Pirates in hitting efficiency, with 184 digs to target and 36 stuff blocks for a team that finished second in the District 4 tournament, then took fifth at state.
Tenino senior Taylor Tibbetts was a big — vertically and literally — piece of the Beavers’ success this year. The 6-foot-3 middle hitter and first-team Evergreen 2A/1A League selection, who has signed to play NCAA Div. II volleyball at Dixie State University in Utah, led the Beavers to a series of gut-check District 4 tournament wins and just the second-ever state tournament appearance by a Tenino team.
W.F. West’s Julie Spencer, a 6-foot-1 outside hitter, earned her third-straight Evergreen 2A Conference first-team nod this season. University of Portland-bound basketball star broke the Bearcats’ career record for kills as a junior, and wrapped her career with a total of 754. She helped break the team school record for digs, kills and aces, despite a season hampered by bursitis that prevented Spencer from hitting or serving late in the season.
Centralia, meanwhile, finished second in the Evergreen 2A Conference on the strength of its finesse play and defense and, fittingly, landed a setter and defensive specialist on the All-Area squad. Tucker McAuley, a 5-foot-3 senior setter, led the Tigers with 6.7 assists a set and served 95.5 percent over the course of the season, while Bryse Gilmore, a 5-1 junior libero, led Centralia in digs (a school-record 7.6 per set) while serving 91 percent.
“Tucker and Bryse were so valuable and important to our success this year,” said Centralia coach Neil Sharp of his two All-EvCo first-team picks. “We were outsized in every match we played this year, but their ball control kept us in a lot of matches and helped us win quite a few.”
