In 3A Greater St. Helens League volleyball play, the Prairie Falcons were as dominant as possible by not dropping a single set in a 9-0 perfect league slate.
While dominant in league and with their 17-6 overall record, Falcons head coach Jen Palmer desired hard contests this season. Prairie traveled to San Diego, California, for a tournament on Oct. 10 and 11, which Palmer said gave the Falcons seven hard contests against great teams.
Towards the end of the season, the Falcons clashed against the Camas Papermakers on Tuesday, Oct. 28. The matchup happened to be a battle of the best in the region as both entered the night ranked No. 2 in their respective classifications in the state coaches poll.
The Papermakers came out victorious in three sets, but the Falcons kept it a competitive affair in multiple moments, especially in the 25-22 second set loss and 25-21 third set loss.
Palmer said the San Diego tournament was the only time her team had faced opposition to the likes of Camas.
“I’d like to play Camas seven times this season,” Palmer told reporters. “I love that tonight we got challenged.”
The Papermakers are led by University of Miami commit Ella Thompson and a couple of other towering big hitters.
“We haven’t faced a lot of hitters who hit the ball to that speed,” Palmer said. “There’s not many other teams we’ll face that give us that same offensive and defensive challenge.”
The Falcons would then demonstrate their league dominance after the three-set loss with a trio of three-set wins against 3A GSHL opponents.
Now, the Falcons will not see opponents from another part of the state ahead of the Washington Interscholastic Athletics Association state volleyball tournament in Yakima on November 21 and 22. The 3A GSHL has opted to go without the bi-district postseason round by taking a more direct route to state championships.
For 3A state tournaments, there are 20 berths available, in comparison to the usual 16 in other classifications. With that, the league, being in District 4, received two automatic berths to state this year in all sports. The primary reason for dropping bi-district tournaments with District 3 is the cost of time and money spent on travel, including multiple trips and overnight stays, according to league officials.
The 3A GSHL will host its own district playoffs for multiple sports, including volleyball. The 3A GSHL volleyball district tournament will take place from Nov. 11-15, with the Prairie Falcons set to face off against the winner of Shelton versus Heritage on Tuesday, Nov. 11, but results were unavailable at press time.
The Falcons will host the winner on Thursday, Nov. 13, at 6 p.m.
