HOCKINSON — On Senior Night, the members of the Columbia River volleyball team learned something about themselves.
In a five-set loss to league champion Ridgefield, the Chieftains discovered they could play with the vaunted Spudders.
On Saturday at the 2A district tournament, the Chieftains learned they could beat Ridgefield — and then become district champions.
Columbia River, which placed third in the 2A Greater St. Helens League, beat Ridgefield in a five-set thriller Saturday morning in the district semifinals, then dispatched of league runner-up Woodland in four to capture the 2A district title.
“I’m super excited,” senior Alicia Wallingford said. “Our goal this year was to place at state. So we’ve been kind of checking off boxes — made it to districts, made it to state. And this really just brought it all together.”
The Chieftains’ day started with a 14-25, 25-22, 21-25, 25-22, 15-12 win over Ridgefield, the heavy favorite to win this event coming in.
“The turning point of our season was Senior Night, which was our last regular-season game against Ridgefield,” Wallingford said. “We rallied back, took them to five, but still lost. But when we came here to districts, we came with a fire that we didn’t want to lose again. We got to the point where we had to play Ridgefield and turned it on. We’re not going to lose to them another time.”
River dropped the first set and found itself down 2-1 after three. But that’s when the Chieftains started playing for each other, coach Breanne Smedley said.
“I know it’s sort of a cliché, but that’s what they did,” Smedley said. “They stopped thinking about themselves and played for the team. We have such a deep team that when everyone starts playing their role, we are a tough team to beat. And we showed that today.”
With a state berth locked up, River turned its attention on Woodland, coming out hot against the Beavers to seal a 25-19, 12-25, 25-17, 25-13 win.
“We were feeling really good knowing that we were the third seed who upended the first seed,” Wallingford said. “So we said ‘What’s the second seed then?’ So we came in and we know what they do, and we weren’t going to let them get us again, too.”
With Columbia River and Woodland locking up the top two spots to state, it was up to Ridgefield to battle its way through the loser-out bracket to grab the final spot.
The Spudders swept past both Washougal and Tumwater to grab that spot.
“We haven’t tasted a loss before so it was a little bit knew to us,” Ridgefield senior Kameryn Reynolds said. “But we focused on our mental game and being strong and tough. And just coming together and realizing ‘you know what, we might not be able to get first anymore, but we still have an opportunity to go to state.’ And that’s what it was about — coming together and reaching our goal, no matter if we took the easy way or the hard way. We chose the hard way today, and that’s OK. We’re going to state.”
The 2A state tournament is Friday and Saturday at St. Martin’s University in Lacey. All three teams will learn their first-round matchups on Sunday.
