The La Center Wildcats find themselves as a consensus top-3 volleyball team in the state at 1A, and a top-15 team overall, as they finished last week with two wins to improve to 10-0 on the season.
The Wildcats started last week with a three-set win over the 1A top-10-ranked Seton Catholic Cougars on Tuesday, Sept. 30. They followed that with another three-set win against King’s Way Christian High School on Thursday, Oct. 2.
In 10 volleyball matches, the Wildcats have dropped just three sets, with two of those coming from top-5 ranked Kalama High School early in the season. The Wildcats and Chinooks squared off on Tuesday, Oct. 7, but results were unavailable as of press time.
The trend of tough 1A Trico League competition continues to climb each year. This season, Wildcats head coach Cymany O’Brien said the Cats have a target on their back after last year’s success of earning a fourth-place finish in the 1A state tournament. This season in the Trico League, the three schools of La Center, Kalama and Seton Catholic have been ranked in the top-10 in 1A by both MaxPreps and by the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA) RPI rankings through Friday, Oct. 3. In the league slate of the season, each school faces off against each other twice.
“I think that really sets us up for all three schools to go deep in the postseason,” O’Brien said of facing off against strong league competition. “Especially like at state, just the really competitive competition and league really helps you as you get into state and what to expect and how hard you have to work and especially the stress and the pressure of state. Like being down in a set, to be able to work through that, those are the kinds of things that happen at state and you have to be mentally tough going into that and prepared with really good competition.”
Highlighting the win against Seton on Sept. 30, O’Brien shouted out her junior setter Quinn Erickson as the standout Wildcat hit 1,000 career assists in the match.
“She needed 10 and she got them in the first set,” O’Brien said.
As the season progresses towards the regular season conclusion at the end of this month, continuing to improve even when it seems like the Wildcats are at the top of their game is going to be crucial, O’Brien said.
“We won’t underestimate anybody as we continue navigating this season and we’re just going to work to get better every opportunity that we have here,” she said.
The Wildcats will next face Columbia High School at home on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.
