ADNA — Monday night in Adna, the Mossyrock volleyball team was in a very unfamiliar position.
Sporting a team loaded with seniors and all-league picks a year ago, the 1B state runner-ups from a year ago, though playing up a classification against the 2B Pirates, trailed 2-0 after a lackluster first two sets.
But the Vikings (2-0) overcame some opening sluggishness to defeat the Pirates (1-1) in five sets Friday (21-25, 13-25, 25-23, 25-20, 15-8), picking up a huge non-league victory on the road.
When Mossy looked down and out, they turned to a senior duo, Payton Torrey and Hailey Brooks, and its scrappy libero Abbie Lovan to turn things around.
“It all changed on the court,” Mossy coach Alex Nelson said. “You could see that they were talking, they wanted the ball to come to them, they were encouraging their teammates. Those three played really hard. Always, when your team isn’t playing well, if you play hard, it’ll eventually come together for you.”
Torrey was dominant in all phases after a slow start, Monday, picking up a game-high 24 kills to go along with 11 digs and three aces. Brooks tacked on 12 more kills with three solo blocks and 12 assisted blocks, and Lovan dug up 13 balls and was solid in serve-receive after a tough start.
It was a complete flip, after the Pirates dominated the Vikings in Set 2, 25-13.
“When we weren’t playing well, they started hustling and making plays, and the rest of the team came along,” Nelson said. “I attribute that win to those girls doing that. It’s really hard to do that. They didn’t let tough serves and hitting from Adna get to them. They kept their heads up and expected the ball to come to them and made great plays.”
For the Pirates, it felt like a squandered opportunity for a big non-league victory against a former 2B and now 1B powerhouse. Breaking in plenty of new faces in new roles, Adna served it up about as well as you could in the first two sets before losing their legs in a third set loss.
Brooklyn Loose stuffed the statsheet with 15 assists, four aces, and seven kills, and Kendall Humphrey added 10 kills, 15 digs, and three more aces.
In two strong sets to start it out, everything was going to plan for the Pirates.
“We were being very aggressive, that’s what our goal has been this year, to be aggressive behind the service line,” Pirates coach Wendie Dotson said. “That’s what we’ve done. During that third set when we fell behind, they worked us and made us move a lot. We got a little tired, we weren’t as quick as we could’ve been.”
The Pirates hosted a tournament last Saturday, and being forced into a fifth set by the Vikings was just too much for a team still adjusting to replacing key seniors from a year ago.
Once Mossyrock made the adjustment on serve-receive, the Pirates had a hard time giving the Vikings strong enough attacks.
“Mossyrock did a really good job of digging up our balls and attacking us, making us move so that we weren’t as aggressive of attackers,” Dotson said. “We had a lot of tips, which they in turn, smacked really hard at us.”
The Pirates will look to get the loss out of their heads quickly when they head to Montesano Tuesday for another non-league tuneup, while the Vikings take on Firm Foundation on the road Tuesday at 6 p.m.
