RIDGEFIELD — A sequence late in the second set of Tuesday’s match against Ridgefield offered a glimpse into how Columbia River junior Sydney Dreves plays volleyball.
As River received a Ridgefield serve, Dreves tracked an errant ball toward the sideline and tumbled over the Rapids’ bench trying to save it. Instead, the Spudders earned the point and tied the set at 24-24.
Just moments later, after a Ridgefield serve sailed out of bounds, Dreves stepped to the service line and confidently delivered an ace to give the Rapids a 26-24 win and commanding 2-0 lead in the match.
“No points over until the ball hits the floor, so even if it means diving over the chairs to get a ball, I wasn’t going to let it just drop,” Dreves said. “We worked so hard in that second set to come back, so I really just took my time on that serve.”
Despite trailing Ridgefield for chunks of the first two sets, River didn’t give in to the pressure it faced against its 2A Greater St. Helens League rival. The Rapids used their momentum from the second set to jump out to an 11-3 advantage in the third set and hold on for a 3-0 sweep (25-16, 26-24, 25-18), improving to 12-0 on the season, including 11-0 in the 2A GSHL.
“We’re not a team that looks at the scoreboard,” Dreves said. “We stay together, we look at each other instead of looking at the scoreboard. We know we have each other’s backs, no matter what the score is. Even if it’s 24-0, we know that we still have the composure to come back.”
In their undefeated start to the season, the two-time defending Class 2A state champions have yet to drop a set, including now two matches against Ridgefield, which has played River in each of the last two state championship matches.
The Rapids are led by one of the state’s best outside hitters in Auburn-bound senior Lauren Dreves, who posted 15 kills, 18 digs and one ace Tuesday.
Younger sister Sydney Dreves is the other part of a potent pairing in the Rapids’ attack. Yet on the defensive side, according to River coach Breanne Smedley, is where Sydney Dreves has taken on added responsibility beginning as a sophomore and continuing into her junior year. The Rapids have benefited from it.
“We said her freshman year, you’re playing middle, but (now) we need you to be a six-rotation outside hitter, and she said, ‘challenge accepted,'” Smedley said. “It’s what she does. We had no doubt she was going to grow into the role that she has. In fact, she’s actually exceeded our expectations.
“Sydney is definitely the gritty, old school, goes for everything, sacrifices her body to get the point. She’s all over the place.”
She’s played alongside Lauren Dreves for all three years of her high school career, and also grew up watching eldest sister Alison Dreves, who’s now a junior at Marian University in Indianapolis. Though Smedley sees all three as different players, having coached each of them at River, Sydney Dreves credits “everything” she’s picked up and refined in her volleyball career to her sisters.
“Both of them are my biggest role models (and) people I look up to the most,” she said. “Everything that I’ve learned, they know. … I just want to be (like) them, but I also want to be as good as them.”
In between warm-ups and introductions Tuesday, Sydney and Lauren Dreves sat side by side on River’s bench talking to each other and taking in the moment before a high-pressure match in the season. Brief as they are, those moments help them stay calm as the Rapids continue their pursuit of a third straight state title.
“My past two seasons have been ones for the books,” Sydney Dreves said, “but this season has also been one for the books. We haven’t dropped a set all year. This team is probably one of the closest teams I’ve been on, and playing senior season with my sister, we’re just giving it our all no matter what.”
