NAPAVINE — In front of a lively crowd, the Napavine volleyball team opened its season with a comeback victory, defeating Toutle Lake in five sets on Monday.
“We did a lot of good things and we have a lot of things to fix,” Napavine coach Monica Dailey said. “Super proud of them for getting the win.”
The first two sets were as close as they come, with the Tigers taking the first set 25-23 and the Ducks taking the second by the same score.
The Tigers had a 16-11 lead at one point in set two, but missed serves and net violations to go on a 7-1 run to take the lead.
Napavine’s struggles with unforced errors continued in the third set, as the Ducks took control of the game with a 25-17 set win.
“Those are just gimme points. You can’t afford to lose those ones,” Dailey said of the team’s mistakes. “Those are momentum killers, and we’ll get better at that.”
Toutle Lake jumped out to a 10-6 lead in the fourth set, but the Tigers roared back, scoring the next eight points to take a 14-10 lead. The only thing that stopped the run was another net violation. The Tigers had 14 of them on the night.
“I don’t think we were in the net 14 times all season last year,” Dailey said before noting that it’s “definitely something that’s fixable.”
Despite the net violation, the Tigers rode their momentum into the fifth and final set, taking an 8-3 lead. Keira O’Neill eventually capped off the win with a spike, one of her team-leading 16 kills on the day. She also had five blocks.
“She’s just an animal,” Dailey said of O’Niell. “She’s really trying to grow as a player … she really tried to mix it up tonight and for the most part, it was really successful for her.”
While O’Neill led the way, several other Tigers also had stellar games. Dakota Hamilton tallied 15 kills and 17 assists. Jessie McCoy recorded 12 assists and 12 digs. Grace Gell added 16 digs.
Dailey was pleased with the overall team defense, saying that it was much more sound than last week, when the team finished second in the Yakima SunDome Festival Tournament despite lacking defensive performances.
The Tigers will return to the court on Thursday, when they’ll host Rainier at 7 p.m.
