NAPAVINE —Onalaska came out flat, didn’t play like itself and was swept by Forks in a loser-out match (26-24, 25-14, 25-16) Wednesday in the 2B District 4 playoffs Wednesday at Napavine High School.
It was a disappointing end to a turnaround season for the Loggers, who won just four games last season and catapulted to a 12-3 regular season record and the Central 2B League’s No. 4 seed for the district playoffs.
That gave the Loggers the No. 7 seed at districts and a first-round matchup against Northwest Christian (Lacey) which Ony rolled through for a sweep on Saturday. But a four-set loss to No. 2 Raymond again on Saturday in round two put the Loggers into a loser-out matchup with No. 4 Forks on Wednesday.
From start to finish, the Loggers did not play their usual aggressive style and were out of system the entire match en route to the sweeping loss.
Onalaska coach Jenny Hamilton, who was named the C2BL coach of the year Sunday night for her efforts reviving the program, said she saw inklings of what was to come during practices this week.
“These last few practices, they weren’t good, and I kept telling them, ‘What’s up? You’re off, you’re not moving your feet,’” Hamilton said. “So coming into today, I was nervous. And more so than any game. We just were off.”
The Loggers’ struggled getting the ball to their outside hitters Hannah James and Morgan Hamilton, the latter being a first-team, all-league hitter. Forks also put a bruising to the Loggers in serve receive.
“You can’t get your hitters hitting and that hurts a lot,” Jenny Hamilton said. “You play strong, you build all this and you go to that moment and you just lose it at the end, and you can’t want it more than them.”
Two seniors played their final match for the Loggers: James and middle blocker Andi Oliver.
