Battle Ground's Brooke Van Sickle (3) hits a spike as Anna Roche (2) and Lauren Harris (9) of Camas attempt to block Thursday in Battle Ground.
BATTLE GROUND — Battle Ground’s volleyball team found the missing ingredient Thursday.
On paper, there’s little reason Battle Ground can’t hang with the best volleyball teams in the state. The Tigers have one of the Northwest’s best players in Brooke Van Sickle and a strong supporting cast.
But the Tigers lacked one thing — belief.
Not anymore. Battle Ground earned its first ever win over Camas on Thursday, handing the Papermakers their first loss of the season.
In a loud Battle Ground gym clad in pink, the Tigers won in four sets (25-22, 18-25, 25-17, 25-19).
Barring an upset next week, Camas (10-1) and Battle Ground (9-1) will finish the 4A Greater St. Helens League season tied. The teams would play a tiebreaker on Nov. 1 to decide the top seed at the district tournament.
Battle Ground hasn’t won a district title since 1976, while Camas placed sixth in state last year.
“They needed to see that when they play together and relaxed, we can beat anybody,” Battle Ground coach Cheyanne Knight said. “They just really needed this to know that Battle Ground can win. It sounds silly to say that, but I’ve been fighting that stigma.”
If Battle Ground had any doubts, they might have surfaced after a sloppy second set. Instead, the Tigers imposed their will on the front line in the final two sets.
Blockers stuffed Camas attacks. Van Sickle and Ashley Watkins traded kills. The belief started to grow.
“It makes us feel like we can do anything,” Watkins said. “The whole team played together. We haven’t played with that much energy in a long time.”
Van Sickle, a junior who has verbally committed to the University of Oregon, finished with 30 kills and 17 digs.
Watkins had 11 kills, 28 assists and 15 digs.
Camas suffered bout of bad luck when starting outside hitter Erika Weber rolled her ankle during the first set, sidelining her for the match.
Lauren Harris tried to pick up the slack with 17 kills and 16 digs. Sophi Jacobson added 14 kills.
The first match between the teams on Sept. 30 went five sets before Camas won.
Round Two goes to Battle Ground. But with a potential tiebreaker and a possible clash at district, the Papermakers and Tigers haven’t seen the last of each other.
“If we play them ten times, it will probably end up 5-5 or 6-4,” Camas coach Julie Nidick said. “They executed their game plan beautifully tonight. We did not execute ours.”
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