CAMAS — The Camas volleyball team is undefeated this season in matches that were at least three sets long.
The problem is most of the Papermakers’ matches haven’t lasted more than three sets.
“These girls are extremely hard-working,” Camas coach Michelle Ford said. “They come to practice every day ready to compete. And that’s good because I tell them our biggest competition is right here.”
Camas’ victory over Class 2A power Ridgefield on Monday was a good challenge as the Papermakers got pushed to five sets before getting the win.
“They’re always a good team, so it’s super fun to play against them,” junior Kendall Mairs said. “But it showed us the little things that we’ve needed to work on in practice every day and improve every day.”
It was only Camas’ second five-set match of the season, with the other coming three weeks ago against Prairie.
The Papermakers had the added challenge that both of their team captains — Mairs and senior libero Halle Reiter — are working through injuries.
“(Because of the injuries) we focused on how to keep it simple on ourselves, but still be successful,” Ford said. “I think we learned a bit about our attack on offense against some bigger blockers because we haven’t come up against a lot of big blockers. But I know in the postseason, we will, especially against Puyallup and Curtis and teams like that.”
Camas got a little taste of that by playing in the Kent Tournament last month.
“We got to see what they have up there (in the Tacoma area) because it’s usually the same teams who go to state,” Ford said. “The only team we lost to in that tournament was Puyallup.”
But that was in an abbreviated two-set matches that get played in tournaments.
The Papermakers are a senior-led team, but also have Mairs, a junior, and a group of talented sophomores like Ella Thompson and Shaylee Stephen.
Ford added: “I have very talented team this year, very deep. I have a lot of options. I have offensive players that I could put on the right side or the outside, or transfer them to the middle. As a coach perspective, it’s nice to have that.”
So building a good team chemistry is important, because the Papermakers rotate through a lot of different lineups during a match.
“We have a lot of seniors, so for them to be on the team for a while, along with me and Halle as captains, we’ve been on the team as freshmen,” Mairs said. “So we know how things have been run and we’re trying to do what the other seniors have done in years past — building the team culture back every year.”
Camas will wrap up league play next week before advancing to the bi-district tournament on Nov. 10-11 at Kentwood High School.
“Right now, it feels like we just need to stay healthy,” Ford said. “We’re trying to get everyone healthy so they are ready to compete on Nov. 10-11. That’s our main goal. We’re going to do a couple of yoga sessions, some mental meditation.”
Ford added: “We’re staying focused and looking at the end goal of bi-district and state. We’re hoping to be a state championship team.”
