Huskies' volleyball season ends one game shy of state
OTHELLO — The Othello Huskie volleyball team dropped a heartbreaking five-set loss to Great Northern League champion Cheney to end its season on a disappointing note.
Othello volleyball qualified for state in 2008 and 2015. But these Huskies fell just one victory short of a state tourney trip. However, they went down fighting.
Othello lost the first set 25-21 and the second set 25-16 before battling back to win the third set 29-27. The Huskies fought hard to win the fourth set and came away with a marathon 31-29 victory.
But Othello was not able to finish the comeback and lost the fifth and deciding set 15-10.
“It was such an epic match,” Huskie coach Steve Parris said. “The kids battled and battled. They pushed themselves beyond where anyone thought they could go.”
The loss at Cheney was the fifth straight loss the Huskies suffered after winning seven consecutive CWAC contests and sharing the league title for some seven weeks.
After dropping a league match at Prosser and losing at Ellensburg to finish the season, the Huskies opened the CWAC District tournament with a second round loss to Selah.
Othello then faced East Valley of Yakima in a match to determine the third and fourth seeds from the district tournament. East Valley defeated Othello Wednesday at Taggares Gym 25-22, 21-25, 25-17 and 25-21.
Cayleen Garza had 10 kills, one ace and 14 digs. Tanaya Andersen finished with 14 kills, two aces and five blocks. Allison Garza had 25 digs and two aces.
During the league season, Othello was able to win matches even when its offense was not scoring a lot of points from kills, blocks and aces. Othello was able to keep the ball in play and count on the opponents to make a mistake that allowed the Huskies to score points.
As the opposition got tougher toward the end of the season, a good defense was not enough to carry the match, and the Huskie offense was not able to make up the difference.
Totaling the blocks, aces and kills as points the Huskies earned against East Valley, Othello earned 34 points in the four sets. East Valley had 42 kills, eight blocks and seven aces – a total of 57 points.
Eight Huskie seniors will graduate from this team. They are Heidi Martinez, Angelica Hernandez, Zoee Roylance, Dominique Martinez, Crystal Arreola-Marquina, Allison Garza, Tanaya Andersen and Cayleen Garza.
“We will definitely miss the girls that are graduating,” Parris said. “They showed great leadership and poise throughout the year. Can’t be more proud of what they accomplished this year.”