Adna tops Rainier to win league title, cap unbeaten regular season

ADNA — It took until the final league game of the year, but the Adna volleyball team clinched the C2BL league title and capped off a perfect regular season on Wednesday, beating Rainier in four sets 25-11, 21-25, 25-16, 25-23.

It’s the first time in school history that Adna has finished a regular season unbeaten.

“That was something they were hoping to do tonight,” Adna coach Wendie Dotson said.

Coming into the game, there was a possibility of a three-way tie for first place atop the league standings, but the Pirates (15-0, 9-0 C2BL) put those worries to bed.

Adna jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead, as Danika Hallom, Karsyn Freeman, and Kendall Humphrey were all having success at the net early and often.

Rainier rebounded by grabbing the second set, and quickly jumped out to a 10-4 lead in the third.

Offensively, the Mountaineers (12-4, 7-2 C2BL) were able to capitalize on Adna’s mistakes, quieting the rowdy crowd.

The Adna offense swiftly rebounded, however, as the Pirates went on an 8-0 run to retake control of the game. Dotson said that the girls started communicating better, similar to how they did in the first set, which allows them to play more freely off each other.

“You can definitely tell that that can impact us,” Dotson said. “So our goal is to keep the communication up.”

They also continued to have success around the net, working in tips and hitting different holes in the Rainier defense to work around the Mountaineers blockers.

“They were trying to do things that would get us a termination,” Dotson said. “When it’s really tight and back-and-forth, you don’t want to play not to win. You want to still terminate the ball and play to win.”

That success carried over into the fourth set. While the Mountaineers were able to have success in spurts and keep it close, the Pirate attack was just too much to overcome.

Hallom finished with 14 kills, 10 digs, a block and an ace, Humphrey had 18 kills, seven digs, five blocks and three aces, and Freeman added 15 digs, 11 kills and two aces.

Gaby Guard and Charissa Schierman combined for 45 assists, while Guard added nine digs, four kills and two aces and Schierman added 10 digs, three kills and two aces.

While it was a disappointing final regular season result for the Mountaineers, Ooms is still confident in the group she has.

“When we get our passes, when we get out sets, we’re unbeatable,” Ooms said. “Sometimes we forget our basic skills, but it’s really a mental game at that point … It wasn’t our best night, but we played well.”

Olivia Earsley and Lilly Johnson each had 18 digs, and Allyson Ooms added 16. Acacia Murphy had 11 kills and seven blocks, while Ooms and Janess Blackburn had seven kills each.

Brooklynn Swenson led the team with 13 assists, though Katelyn Eckroth wasn’t far behind with 10.

With the regular season now officially in the rearview, the C2BL standings are set.

As the league’s top team, Adna will get the No. 1 seed and host first- and second-round district tournament games on Saturday. They’re first game will be in the second round at 4 p.m.

Rainier’s loss combined with Toutle Lake’s win against Napavine puts the Mountaineers in the three spot, which means they will play Onalaska in the first round of the district tournament at Raymond, the Pacific’s top team, at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday.