LACEY — The volleying will not stop anytime soon for Battle Ground and Columbia River.
Both teams are still alive for state titles at the WIAA volleyball championships.
But the players will relive Friday long after the tournament concludes.
They will be volleying memories to their children years from now.
Battle Ground and Columbia River both won pulse-pounding five-set matches Friday. The descriptions ran the gamut.
Her knee wrapped in ice, Battle Ground star Brooke Van Sickle called Friday’s first-round thriller against Central Valley the “toughest” match she has played in.
Still visibly shaking and tears welling in her eyes, Columbia River junior Evi Wilson called Friday’s quarterfinal win over Kamiakin the “scariest” match of her career.
Both can breathe easy, if only for a few hours.
Battle Ground faces No. 1 Bellarmine Prep in a 4A semifinal today at 3:15 p.m.
Columbia River faces top-ranked Auburn Riverside in a 3A semifinal at 1:30.
Camas is still alive for a 4A fifth- or sixth-place trophy after losing a quarterfinal match to Emerald Ridge.
Prairie is alive for a 3A seventh- or eighth-place trophy after dropping its opening match to Kamiakin, but rebounding in a consolation win over Holy Names.
Battle Ground had not won a state volleyball match in 25 years. The Tigers will not soon forget their first-round match against Central Valley of Spokane, which won the third and fourth sets after Battle Ground cruised during the first two.
That set up a fifth-set sprint in which neither team led by more than two points.
Central Valley’s blockers stuffed Van Sickle to take a 14-13 lead. But the Tigers star dinked it over the front line to tie the match.
After a Central Valley error gave Battle Ground match point, the Tigers again turned to Van Sickle. Again, she dinked it over Central Valley’s blockers and saw the ball fall to the floor.
Final score in the fifth set: 16-14.
“It says a lot about our confidence,” Battle Ground coach Cheyanne Knight said. “We had a lot to start the match, lost it in the third set, then regained it just in time.”
In a quarterfinal match that seemed anticlimactic, Battle Ground swept Tahoma to reach the state semifinals for the first time.
“I’m really proud of my team that we made it this far,” Van Sickle said. “It feels great to bring up Battle Ground to this level.”
Van Sickle had 28 kills but 15 errors in that first match. Her mobility was limited because of what she called an overuse injury to her right knee.
Columbia River advanced to the 3A semifinals by beating Kamiakin in a fifth set that ended 18-16, but only after River staved off a match point.
Ranked No. 2 by the Seattle Times, River traded sets with Kamiakin, a Kennewick school ranked No. 4.
In the fifth set, Kamiakin sprinted to a 7-4 lead, but River pulled ahead 12-10 on two of Andrea Demlow’s team-high 22 kills.
Things got really tense for River when Kamiakin had a match point at 16-15. River went to its star Wilson. The junior tied the match with a kill, then hit the game-winner two points later.
“With a point-to-point match, that’s the most stressful type,” said Wilson who had 21 kills and 19 digs. “But I believe in myself and I believe in my team.”
In its four-set first-round victory over Holy Names, River avenged a loss in last year’s state semifinals as the Chieftains placed fourth.
