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ADNA — The Toledo Riverhawks’ 22-year state volleyball tournament drought will have to wait at least another three days.
In the District 4 2B semifinals Wednesday night, the Riverhawks fell flat against Toutle Lake in a sweep that sent the Ducks to the district title match. Toledo, which hadn’t been swept all year, failed to surpass 20 points in a set. In fact, all three of the Riverhawks previous three losses came in five sets.
“We troubled ourselves more than anything, unforced errors and not really communicating. [Toutle Lake] really hustled and went after everything, but I thought more of it was how we performed ourselves,” Toledo head coach Kelli Larson said.
Each of the three sets were similar stories: the Riverhawks trailed early, made some impressive defensive plays to crawl back in the middle stretch of the set, and then couldn’t finish in the end. Toledo’s best chance came in the third set, as the Riverhawks climbed out of an early five-point hole and tied the frame at 14, led by strong defense by Taysia Miller and attacks by Ellie Fallon.
“I saw some great efforts. I saw Taysia Miller really putting out some defensive effort and trying to rally up the team and get the communication going,” Larson said. “She had a couple of good hits, but our hits just weren’t what they need to be to win one of these games.”
The veteran Ducks were too much to handle in the climax of the third set, closing out the stanza and the match on an 11-5 run. While Toutle Lake played stout defense, some bounces just didn’t go Toledo’s way. Miscommunication led to several missed opportunities to chip away.
Toutle Lake is responsible for two of Toledo’s four losses this season, and in their second meeting on a much bigger stage, the Riverhawks only led once when it was 5-4 early in the first set.
The Riverhawks will have to regroup for a winner-to-state, loser-out match on Saturday at Adna High School, where they will face a familiar opponent in Mossyrock. Toledo beat the Vikings in five sets in Mossyrock on Oct. 27.
If the Riverhawks win Saturday, they would return to the state tournament for the first time since 2003.
“I would love to see them make it there, but we’ll see who shows up on Saturday,” Larson said.
Fallon recorded 11 kills and 12 digs in the loss, while Miller logged 14 digs and three kills.
