Othello Huskies volleyball team hope to return to state tournament

OTHELLO — Huskie head volleyball coach Steve Parris hopes to reload and not rebuild following last year’s state qualifying run.

Othello graduated eight seniors from the squad that beat Prosser to earn the third CWAC district berth and defeated Clarkston to secure only the second state berth in Othello volleyball history. But Parris does not see this as a rebuilding year.

“We have eight seniors again this year,” Parris said. “We have some girls that know what is going on.”

Second team All-League libero Allison Garza, middle blocker Tanaya Andersen and outside hitter Cayleen Garza are the returning starters. They will lead the Huskie charge.

“Allison definitely anchors our defense,” Parris said. “She has a lot of leadership abilities and goes 100 percent all the time.”

Anderson and Cayleen Garza are expected to provide the power hitting.

“Tanaya has really stepped it up, and she is healthy this year,” Parris said.

Garza’s strength at the net was instrumental to Othello’s late season success.

“When you look at the last couple of matches last year and going through district, she was spot on,” Parris said. “She carried us through October and November last year.”

Junior outside hitter Mykiah Hollenbeck also saw playing time last year on varsity.

The rest of the team will be made up of last year’s junior varsity players. With only five days of practice completed, Parris was not ready to announce a starting line-up. The starters will probably change often during the early part of the season.

“Sophomore Macy Hampton is just a fabulous athlete who has really stepped it up and will be our number 1 setter coming through,” Parris said. “With her experience in basketball and tennis, I think she is going to do great.”

Sophomore Allysha Hawley brings some size at 5’9 and senior Heidi Martinez will provide another hitter at the net. Zoee Roylance and Dominque Martinez were a part of the varsity practice on Friday.

“We are looking at Zoee as a setter,” Parris said. “Dominque played her freshman year and just started again in June but, again, she is an athlete. It is great to have a kid like that with her attitude.”

The Huskies played some summer league volleyball out of the Tri-Cities, and 11 girls went to a team camp at EWU in July.

“We are not as strong as we were last year at this point,” Parris said. “We have a lot of work to do to get there, and it starts with our defense and our serve receive. We have to jell together.”