Vikings volleyball moving on to State

ROSALIA - For the first time in several years, the Garfield-Palouse (Gar-Pal) Vikings are going to play in the State volleyball tournament.

The Vikings entered the Southeast 1B League tournament as the No. 2 seed and defeated Sunnyside Christian, 3-2, on Monday, Oct. 28, but then fell to Walla Walla Valley Academy, Liberty Christian and DeSales, making them the No. 6 seed out of the Southeast for the District 6 Tournament.

At Districts, Gar-Pal defeated Almira-Coulee-Hartline and Sunnyside Christian, both by scores of 3-0, to earn the State tournament berth.

"It's been a long time since Gar-Pal's been to the State tournament and it feels great to watch these girls play like they did," said Gar-Pal coach Genna Bessey. "They earned that State spot. We had our ups and downs and they came out on fire."

The Vikings opened the Southeast 1B League tournament by defeating Sunnyside Christian, 3-2, on Monday, Oct. 28.

The team was able to get the victory despite being down junior setter Morgan Lentz, who was out due to being sick.

"They pulled together really well, especially with missing one of our regular starters," Bessey said. "Morgan brings a lot of energy to our court and we definitely missed her tonight, and the girls did too, but they pulled together and they played excellent. I'm really happy for them."

Gar-Pal won by set scores of 22-25, 25-15, 25-18, 21-25 and 15-4.

Sophomore Kyra Brantner had an all-around game with 17 kills, 16 digs and three aces. Junior Elena Flansburg also had 16 digs and fellow junior Clare Bowechop notched 14 kills. Sophomore setter Kaylee Kimble led the Vikings with 42 assists.

Brantner, Flansburg and senior Hailey Beckner each had one block in the match.

"Hailey (Beckner), who usually does not play all the way around, played all the way around tonight and she did great," Bessey said. "We were down a starter and a setter, so we had to switch our gameplan up this morning, but (freshman) Molly Huffman went in and she has not seen as much courttime this year as I would like, but she played an excellent game. I told her when I got ready to put her in, 'all I care about is you have a good time and you give your 100%. Everything else is just gravy.' She did an excellent job stepping up."

The Vikings went on to play Liberty Christian on Friday, Nov. 1. That match also went to five sets, but this time Gar-Pal fell just short of the victory, losing 3-2.

Set scores were 25-20, 25-22, 17-25, 18-25 and 15-5. In Set one, Gar-Pal battled back from being down, 24-4 and gained the next six points before the Vikings hit the ball out of bounds for Liberty Christian to take the first set.

In set two, the Vikings gained a 22-18 lead, but Liberty Christian scored the next seven points, taking the second set and putting Gar-Pal's back against the wall.

Not giving up, the Vikings controlled the court for the next two sets, winning the third and fourth set, but set five proved to be difficult. Liberty Christian took a 9-0 lead before Gar-Pal could take a point. The deficit proved to be too deep for the Vikings to make a comeback and Liberty Christian won the deciding set, 15-5, and the match, 3-2.

The Vikings went on to play DeSales two hours later and fell to the Irish, 3-0. Set scores were not available at press time.

Gar-Pal moved on to the 1B District 6 Tournament as the sixth seed out of the Southeast on Tuesday, Nov. 5. With Lentz returning to the court, the Vikings opened the District tournament with a match against the No. 5 seed out of the Northeast, the Almira-Coulee-Hartline Warriors.

The Vikings defeated the Warriors, 3-0, with set scores of 25-18, 25-17 and 29-27.

Gar-Pal steadily built its lead in set one and two until they gained the wins. Set three was more of a challenge.

Whenever one team would score a point, the other team would tie it back up. This went on for the entire first half of the set until the score was 12-12.

The Vikings then gained the next 10 points to the Warrriors' five on aces by Lentz and Brantner with kills from Bowechop and Lentz.

The Warriors fought back and took the lead, 24-23. An ace by Lentz and a kill by Brantner helped tie the set at 26-26. The Warriors got the next point, but the Vikings scored the next three and won the set, 29-26, and the match, 3-0.

Still facing elimination, the Vikings faced a familar foe in the Sunnyside Christian Knights. With the last match going to five sets, it was anybody's game to win, or lose.

The Vikings defeated the Knights, 3-0, by set scores of 25-17, 25-11 and 25-19, earning the State tournament berth.

"They came in today knowing that we were in kind of a crappy position with the possibility to be out in two games and they were focused, Bessey said. "We had an excellent practice yesterday and they told me 'we want it and we want it bad,' and it showed. The way that we played today showed that we wanted it."

The Knights took an early 3-0 lead in set one, but the Vikings battled and tied the set at 4-4 with kills from Lentz, Bowechop and Flansburg. The teams fought back and forth until the score was tied again at 9-9.

From there, the Vikings found there footing and made some big digs as they slowly increased a lead. Brantner gained two kills in a row before Lentz served a set of three aces to give the Vikings the set win.

"(Lentz) played an excellent game tonight," Bessey said. "She was focused and on fire and she brings an energy to us that we needed. It was excellent."

Gar-Pal handily won set two with the Knights not able to keep pace with the Vikings. As the Vikings took a large lead late in the third set, the Gar-Pal crowd stood up and began to cheer, knowing their team was on the brink on moving on to State.

The final strike came from a kill by Bowechop, assisted by Lentz, to give Gar-Pal the set three win and the match victory.

"(It was) just the pure excitement," Bessey said. "My bench was excited, my girls on the court were excited, we got the crowd excited. We went into the postseason saying we want to have a good time and they had a really good time tonight."