UNIVERSITY PLACE — After winning a pair of tough, scrappy sets against Mount Rainier, the Camas volleyball team was ready to finish off the Rams in the third set.
After all, there was a trip to the state tournament on the line, and it was getting late.
“I mean, it’s like 10 o’clock right now and we’ve got games tomorrow, so it’s best that we finish it off in three,” senior Kendall Mairs said. “And they’re a really good team, very scrappy. But we just pushed over that hump to win in three.”
Camas defeated Mount Rainier 25-18, 25-21, 25-10 in the semifinals of the 4A bi-district tournament Friday night at Curtis High School to secure that berth to next week’s state tournament in Yakima.
Camas also advanced to face Kennedy Catholic in the bi-district semifinals at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Even though the Papermakers earned their second three-set win on the day after beating Bonney Lake earlier Friday, Mount Rainier made Camas work early in the quarterfinals.
The Rams jumped out to early leads in both the first and second set, forcing Camas to rally to make the score even before pulling away late.
“In the beginning when it was back-and-forth, it was hard because they’re such a scrappy team, and it gets our adrenaline going and makes us frantic at times,” Mairs said. “But after every single point, whether win or lose, we would come together and calm everything back down. We knew that we could play our side of the game and push forward to get out of each set.”
Mairs set the table for Camas, posting 30 assists. Ella Thompson posted 16 kills and seven digs, Emmah Sanchez had 12 digs and Quinn Pedersen added eight kills for the Papermakers against Mount Rainier.
But Mairs said the Papermakers like to get contributions from all over the floor. That will be important as the competition gets tough with Kennedy Catholic on Saturday and then a matchup against either Curtis or Puyallup later Saturday.
“If one person is struggling, we have people ready to step up and kind of step into that spot,” Mairs said. “So everyone is ready to go. And we’ve kind of stepped up to another level in this tournament because we know the competition will prep us for later.”
Skyview dropped its opening match in the tournament Friday, falling 3-0 to Emerald Ridge. But the Storm stayed alive with a 3-1 win over Kentwood. Skyview will face Mount Rainier in a loser-out match Saturday, hoping to advance to a winner-to-state match later Saturday.
Union was eliminated with losses to Curtis and South Kitsap.
In the 3A bi-district tournament, Prairie secured a berth into the state tournament by beating Lincoln of Tacoma 3-1 and Timberline of Lacey 3-1 on Friday.
The Falcons will face North Thurston in the bi-district semifinal at noon Saturday at Foss High School in Tacoma.
Kelso dropped a first-round match to Capital, but stayed alive with a 3-0 win over Kentlake. If Kelso can get past Timberline in a loser-out match Saturday, the Hilanders would get two chances later Saturday to secure a state berth.
Heritage lost to White River and Federal Way and was eliminated from the tournament.
