Jacks start fast, Huskies finish faster in CWAC finale

Walker, Mollotte, Morgan key Othello's comeback win over Quincy

QUINCY - It hasn't been a successful season in terms of wins for the Quincy Lady Jackrabbits volleyball team, but no one would've known that by watching the first game of Thursday's match with the Othello Huskies.

Quincy said goodbye to seniors Courtney Felder, Lesa Hearst and Katy Higgins prior to the match. The Lady Jacks then proceeded to steal game one from the playoff-bound Huskies, winning 25-19.

Othello's three-headed offensive monster of Allison Walker, Kylee Mollotte and Natalie Morgan eventually proved to be too much for Quincy. The Huskies won the last three games with relative ease, 25-12, 25-13, 25-12. But Quincy's overall performance was one head coach Jeanne Brindle was proud of.

"It would've been great to go out with a win for (the seniors). "They've been great - absolutely great overall as players, leadership on the team, and they're all just great kids."

"We got caught sleepwalking," Othello head coach Steve Parris said of game one. "Quincy had a lot to play for. This was their last match of the year, win or lose. They had some kids, especially their seniors, that wanted to go out and play and try to end on as positive a note as they could."

Felder and junior Becca Boen tied for the team lead with five kills apiece, and made life miserable for Othello's struggling front line early on. The Huskies didn't serve well in game one either, which led Parris to remove Justine Villarreal in favor of Priscilla Cantu.

"She's our best server out there," Parris said of Cantu. "Right now with the way the rotation's set up, she doesn't get to serve that much.

"We took Justine out of the rotation, which is hard too, because Justine's our hardest server," Parris added. "But she does miss sometimes."

Cantu finished 21 of 22 from the line, helping relieve pressure on the rest of the lineup. Walker buried a match-high 21 kills and added 15 digs, most of them in the final three games. Kylee Mollotte also came on strong, adding 20 kills, and Natalie Morgan chipped in 11 more.

The trio had their setters to thank for such gaudy numbers - Kayla Dickson finished with 30 assists and Villarreal added 16.

"We have to get a lot more speed," Jeanne Brindle said of the off-season fixes she hopes to make. "My defense does a pretty good job, but we don't get there as fast as we need to when we've got a big hitter coming at us."

Higgins had a team-high nine digs for Quincy and added three kills. Hearst, the team's only returning varsity starter this fall, had eight digs in her last match. Manda Brindle had 15 assists, six digs and a block.

Quincy finished the year with just one win in Central Washington Athletic Conference play. But the coach saw improvement in her girls and complimented their unchanging attitude over the course of the season.

"They never got down on themselves," she said. " I've got a team this year that's been really great at not bickering amongst themselves. They all get along, they have fun together out there.

"Even tonight, they were excited to go four games. They haven't gotten to do that."

Othello will be the CWAC North Division's No. 4 seed at the district tournament and travel to South top seed Grandview on Tuesday evening. Grandview won the team's earlier matchup, and Parris said there's one thing he's worried about in the rematch.

"Their blocking ran havoc against us last time," he said. " Grandview's a very large team. They have two girls over 6-foot, then another two in the 5-10, 5-11 range."

To combat that, Othello wants to keep mixing in short sets through the middle with Jessica Schmidt and Morgan. That should free up Walker and Mollotte on the outside for some better kill opportunities.

Mollotte recently moved from middle hitter to outside hitter and her continued success might be a key to Othello's upset bid on Tuesday.

"We decided to move her out there, get somebody opposite of Allison to make certain we had one of them in the front row at all times," Parris said. "We were really struggling with one rotation when they were both in the back row early in the season.

"She's getting more and more comfortable on the outside," he added. "She likes the approach, she likes to be able to swing, and too many times in the middle she gets caught standing, doesn't get that full approach, doesn't get a full swing."