Latest / Whatcom Preps Podcast / Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 438 - 2026 Volleyball Preview

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Whatcom Preps Podcast Episode 438 - 2026 Volleyball Preview · Whatcom Preps Podcast

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Greetings and welcome into the Walkin' Preps Podcast. This is
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: episode 438. It's the 2026 Volleyball Review, and I am
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: super excited about this one. I've been able to make
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: it out to all 10 teams, practices, get headshots of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: the players, talk to the coaches, kind of get a
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: feel for all the teams. And this is, even though
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I've been covering volleyball about the last six years, this
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: will be the fourth year in a row where I'm
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: really dialed in, meaning like I go to a game
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: every night and see all the teams multiple times. I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: try to make sure before the playoffs start, I want
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: to make sure I see every team at least five
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: times during the season. And then when the playoffs start,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I see them all a lot more and you know, yeah,
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: been dead, been to the state tournament the last three
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: years and definitely plan on going a fourth year and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: this year. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. So
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: going out to these schools, I get to, see who
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: some of the new players are, maybe learn of a
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: player that's not playing this year, see if there's a
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: transfer to a new school, all that stuff. And so
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of information here that I'm going to
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: throw at you, and we're going to go through each team,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: and we're going to do it in alphabetical order, which
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: means we're going to start off with the Bellingham Bayhawks,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: which is coached by Crimson Rector. Last year, they went 7-11,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: and in conference play, they went 6-9. They lost a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: few players to graduation that were on the top 50
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: list last year. Number 39, Mary Lockhart. Number 47, Jada Knutson.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Olivia Simonowski had made that list in previous years as well.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: And when I went to practice, I was saddened to
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: learn that Sonoma Smith, who was number 36 on the
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: list last year, who would have been a junior this year,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: she is not playing anymore. and I saw Merritt Jensen, uh,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: in a full leg brace on crutches. And I thought,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Oh my goodness. So it's going to be a lot
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of new players, uh, for the Bellingham Bay Hawks this year. And, and, uh,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: but it was, they were all smiles at practice. They're
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: working hard. Um, so, and there, there are a handful
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: of players that do have varsity experience. Um, there might
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: be a few players that swing back and forth between
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: varsity and JV because, you know, already there's really just
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: four players that have varsity experience. So, you know, you're
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: going to have a lot of players, you know, on
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: the wood, on the hardwood that are going to be
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: doing it for the first time in front of the
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: big crowds for the first time. And their first game
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is going to be coming up here Wednesday night against
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Cedar Woolley. So, so it's going to, it's coming around
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: pretty quickly. the main players that are returning from last year,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Lulu Monroe, who's a senior five, nine center setter last year,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: she had 412 assists. So she's, she's definitely, you know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: been doing a lot of the setting had 45 digs
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: as well as, and seven kills, six aces and one
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: and a half blocks, you know, five, nine setter. That's
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: nice to have up front there and get in on
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: the defense a little bit at the, at the right,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: right at the net. So they'll, they'll lean on her
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: quite a bit. And also Bailey Burge, who's a five,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: seven senior libero. She had 261 digs last year. I
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: believe she ended the season in the top five in
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the County and digs per set. So very, very good
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: defensive player. Uh, she also had 27 aces, which is
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: pretty darn good number to have 15 assists. Um, you know,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: not exactly a center, but helped out when, when it
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: was needed. Um, So those are the two that by
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: far have the most varsity experience. Navy Vasquez, a 5'7
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: senior right side player. Last year, she had five digs,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: four kills and three aces in her limited time. And
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: AK Smith, who is a 5'7 junior middle blocker right
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: side player. She had a kill and a block. So
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: those two players had they played a little varsity last
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: year and hopefully they and their roles will become much bigger.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Now it's about finding the rotation, finding the other players
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: that can contribute and do some good things. Gwen Selinger.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: as a 5'4 junior back row player, defensive specialist libero.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: There's Sienna Okunami, a 5'6 sophomore pin. Riley Anderson, who
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: shows really good height at 5'11 as a senior right
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: side player. Morgan Brennan is a 5'4 junior setter. Saw
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: her at practice. She impressed me. I think that she'll
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: play quite a bit. At least it seemed like it anyways.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Hensley Hurlburt, is a 5'7 freshman outside hitter. So whenever
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: I see a freshman outside hitter on varsity, that makes
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: me think, you know, that player is going to be
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: making a difference. And I haven't seen her play a ton,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: but we'll see kind of what she does. Audrey Real
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: is a 6' tall sophomore middle blocker, and Estelle Oaks
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: is a 5'8 sophomore outside hitter. So those are your
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: main varsity players. A lot of new names there, like
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: I said. And then there will be a few underclassmen
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: that will suit up every once in a while. And
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: you just kind of never know with injuries or whatever,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: what could happen. But Cora Cornelier is a 5'6 sophomore setter.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: Sophia Belisle is a 5'9 middle sophomore setter. Amber Key
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: is a 5'7 junior middle blocker, and Ava Wiebe is
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: a 5'4 sophomore defensive specialist. So those are four players
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: that we might not see as much, but that's part
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: of the future that they're going to have out at
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Bellingham High School. It's going to be tough to replicate
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: seven wins and six conference wins like they did last
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: year just because of so many new faces. But so
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: much of it is communication. And if they can talk
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: to each other in the court and get that going
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: well and just have fun playing, so much of being
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: just having a good time and obviously winning can cause
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: a good time. But when your attitude is positive, it
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: can translate into wins as well. I know it's a really,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: really tough conference, but some of these players, they have
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: experienced that. these wins in the past. They upped their
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: record from 2024 to 2025, and I think they may
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: have almost doubled their win total, but it's going to
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: be hard to keep that going now with the injuries
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and different things and all the new players, but we'll see.
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Only four seniors on the team, so it could be
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: something to look for for the future. And like I said,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of these players that I haven't seen
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: yet that they might be like, Tyler, you don't know
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: what you're talking about. She's an awesome player. So I'm
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: excited to see what they do against Cedra Woolley on
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Wednesday night. I might pop in there for a little bit.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I'm probably going to be at the Linden Ferndale game though.
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: So we'll just have to wait and see. But that
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: is your Bellingham Bayhawks team and excited to see what
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: they can do. Let's go up I-5 all the way
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: up to exit 275 where the Blaine Borderites hail. And
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: KJ Ossink is in her, boy, I don't know how
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: many years it's been, maybe third year now as the
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: head coach. Seven and 13 last year overall, five and
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: 10 in the Northwest Conference. Lost a couple of the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: top 50 players to graduation. Number 37 was Carly Saunders.
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: Number 41 was Ari Johnson. Both different types of players,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: but what they did was up front, you know, Carly
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Saunders was a great, hitter, middle blocker, right there in
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: the middle. And Ari Johnson was a high flyer, really
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: good at the service line and as an outside hitter.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: And then I also lost Taya Dubé, who was ranked
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: number 17 last year. She transferred to Ferndale during the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: school year last year. So I believe because it was
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: during the school year last year and she did track
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: last year for Ferndale, she'll be able to play right away.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: She won't have to sit out any games for the
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Ferndale Golden Eagles. So, again, much like Bellingham, it's a
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: big crop of new players for the Borderites. There were
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: other seniors, too, that they lost that were a big
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: part of their team. So there's a lot of new faces.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: The one by far with the most experience, Livia Wida,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: who's a 5'11 senior middle and outside hitter. And last
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: year she had 74 kills, 19 blocks, 33 digs, 6 aces.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: So she returns the most out of all four of
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: those statistics, kills, digs, aces, and blocks. So she, like
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: I said, she by far has the most varsity experience.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: I want to say this is her third year playing varsity.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: And so she'll be relied upon heavily up front at
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: the net. She also had three assists. But other players
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: that have experience that will be around here, Caitlin Phelps
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: McDonald is a 5'2 sophomore libero who had 23 digs.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: She also had seven kills, one ace, one assist. Haley
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: Cruz is a 5'10 sophomore outside hitter, middle, really impressive athlete,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: does some good things basketball-wise, track and field-wise. I think
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: that she could be another player that could kind of
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: rack up some kills. And she had three kills, two digs,
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: an ace, and a block last year. But that was
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: very limited playing time. So excited to see what she does.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Rylian Granstrom is a 5'5 sophomore setter. And last year
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: she did a little bit. playing setter Ainsley Ellis was
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: the main setter but she did have 37 assists and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: 11 digs so she'll be put into that spot now
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: and probably be that main setter and then McKenna Johnson
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: played a little bit last year as well on varsity
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: a 5 foot 10 middle blocker and plays on the
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: right side as well she had a kill a dig
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and an ace so those are the five with the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: varsity experience it ranges from a lot of experience to
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: not a ton but those are the five that have
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: that experience They also have junior Maddie Boyle, who's a
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: 5'6 outside hitter. Alexis Sylvester, who's a sophomore, 5'7 setter.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: And Aaliyah Broyan, who's a 5'7 freshman middle blocker. We
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: saw Aaliyah Broyan starring on the softball team last year
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: as an eighth grader. So we know what kind of
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: athlete she is. And I don't know if she's related
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to Austin Broyan, if that's her dad or her uncle
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: or somebody, but he was a heck of an athlete
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: at Blaine. all those years ago. That's a, that's an
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: athlete that I actually covered at the Bellingham Herald long,
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: long time ago. So only eight players and it's a,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: it's a unique strategy to go with. I totally get it.
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: They have 24 players in the program and instead of
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: going 12 and 12 varsity and junior varsity, they're going
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: to go eight, eight and eight with varsity, junior varsity
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: and a C team. And you know, the reasoning with
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: that is you get a lot of players, a lot
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: of court time, you know, during the week and get
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: them used to playing games and stuff like that. So,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: you know, by the end of the year, it might
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: turn into one of those things where it turns into
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: two teams just because, you know, something happens to a
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: player here and there. And all of a sudden you
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: only have six on one team where you only play
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: with six and it's hard to play multiple sets with
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: just six players and playing, you know, Ironman volleyball. So
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: it might change, but for right now, What's great about
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: it is, like I said, you have eight. A lot
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: of kids are going to play a lot of times.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: The kids have to be excited about that. They get
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: to play quite a bit. It's not like it's just
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: all the... It's kind of spread out. You only have
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: one senior on the varsity, but you also only have
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: one freshman. It's kind of all over the place. I
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: think it's going to be an interesting year for the Borderites.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: They always seem to have really great starts to matches
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: where they'll play really tough in a first set and
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: they get that momentum going, then just some weird things happen.
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: And so it's kind of, it's going to be kind
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: of about closing the deal, I think here and there. Um, and,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: and it, the schedule is a little different this year.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: And we talked about that on a few podcasts ago
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: with Chaz Cock about how the one A's will play
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: the one A's multiple times and the two A's will
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: play the two A's multiple times and three A's play
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: the three A's multiple times. So, um, you know, Blaine
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: won't be playing Linden this year. Instead, they'll play, you know,
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: Mount Baker three times or two times or whatever it is.
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: You know, every sport's a little different, but I think
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: it's going to even some things out and it'll kind
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: of make things a little bit more understandable for the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: district tournament, even though they're all going to play each
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: other again there as well. But I think it'll help
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: with seeding and different things. And it'll be, I mean,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: 1A volleyball is, has had some really talented teams that
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: have finished at the top of near the top of
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: the Northwest conference over the years, regardless of classification. And
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: it's a shame that only two teams have been able
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: to go to state the last few years, because there's
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: been three teams ranked in the top eight or nine
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: in state every year. And one team always gets left out. And, um,
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: you know, and, and Blaine and Mount Baker are, are,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: are scratching and clawing to, to get better. And, um,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: compete with those other three teams. And, you know, going
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: out to practice, I'm seeing that happen. So I think
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: it'll be a lot more tightly contested in the 1A
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: and we'll just have to see how it goes. And
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: the border rights are going to be a big, big
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: part of that. Let's go to Ferndale. The Ferndale Golden
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: Eagles are coached by Michaela Tannis. And last year, a
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: great record of 17 and 6, 13 and 2 in
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: the conference. They got to uh, the state tournament at
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the three, a classification. Um, but boy, three, a volleyball, man,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: those are some really good teams watched a lot of
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: their district stuff. That was down South. I can't remember
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: where it was. If it was in Stanwood or, uh,
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: about like terrorists or something. I watched a lot of
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the film on that, like live as it was happening
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: on NFHS. And boy, those were some intense, intense matches
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: back and forth. Close, close, uh, you know, and the
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: competition there is just fantastic. And I'm really excited about
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: this year's Golden Eagle team. They do lose a few
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: players due to graduation. The top ones being Katrina Ferry, obviously.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: I mean, I had her ranked fourth on the top
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: 50 list last year. So that's a big, big loss there.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: And then number 50 on the list last year was
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: Caitlin Berg. So those are the two main losses from
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: last year. But they do return quite a bit. And
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: like I said earlier, they get Taya Dubé who comes
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: over from Blaine. So when you look at what they
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: do return last year, it all starts with Brooklyn Larrabee,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: who is now a senior. I can't believe it. Five
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: foot seven setter. The beauty of what I do is
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that I get to, you know, I get to watch
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: all these athletes do what they love to do and
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: kind of chronicle their career. And I'm so blessed that,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that I got to come into it when Brooklyn Larrabee
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: was a freshman, because I got to see it from
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: beginning to all the way to now. And I don't
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: think I've ever seen a volleyball player like her that
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: can do so many things. I had her ranked number
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: two last year on the top 50 list. She's one
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: of those players that I think she could play any position.
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: And I don't know. And Brooklyn, if you're listening or coach, Janice,
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: if you're listening, send me a message to let me know.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: But I don't think Brooklyn has ever taken a point
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: off in a set in her whole varsity career. Meaning,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I don't know if she's ever sat on the bench
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: for a point here or there. I mean, there could
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: have been a blowout at some point where she took
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: a break. But I don't– I mean, I've never seen it.
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: And she is– she is relentless. She is talented. She
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: is– the biggest cheerleader of her teammates. It's all the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: things combined and the numbers, you know, it's better than
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: the numbers. The numbers jump off the page. I mean,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: 742 assists last year, 302 digs, 128 kills. I mean,
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: 128 kills from the center position is incredible in a year,
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: 58 aces. That is, you know, I talk about all
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: the time and they, they, when they start matches, she's
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the one serving when they start, they get off on a,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: Great start with that, and it's always great to see.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: And she also had 16 blocks. So that's what I
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: mean about she could play the middle. She could play
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: the back line. She could be an outside hitter. But
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: if you have a top-of-the-line all-state caliber setter, then you
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: are poised to make a good run. And that's why
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I think Ferndale this year looks really, really good. They
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: are one of those teams that you could look at
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: and say, they could be Northwest Conference champions. I really,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: truly believe that. Helping out on the outside as an
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: outside hitter or a pin is Svetlana Badak. She was
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: ranked number 13 last year on the list. She's a
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: 6'1 senior, had 302 kills, 248 digs, 35 aces, 16 blocks,
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: and 7 assists. And she's a player that emerged as
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: a sophomore when I saw her the first time. And
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: usually when I see a sophomore that's that good, I'm
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: always like, well, where was she her freshman year? And
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: so I had a lot of those questions like, did
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: she move here? Like, what happened? But I don't even
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: know if I ever had the question answered, but I
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: think they just had a bunch of hitters that were
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: seniors when she was a freshman. But she... She kind
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: of took the league by storm, and she's improved every
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: single year, and I think she's poised to have another great,
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: great year. Like I said, last year I had her
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: ranked number 13 on the list. Last year, number 17
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: on the list was Taya Dubé. She's a 5'9 outside
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: hitter at Penn. Very similar style to Baydack, both doing
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: the same thing. Taya's about four inches shorter, but she
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: can fly and a lot of power. They both have
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: a ton of power, so it's going to be really
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: fun to see how they play off each other. And
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: it's going to be great to see how Brooklyn sets
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: them up because it's the other teams are going to be,
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: you know, they're going to look out for it. It's
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: coming from wherever and you never know. And last year
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: she had 235 kills, 232 digs, 25 aces, 13 assists
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: and two and a half blocks. So, yeah, I I
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: almost think that even though I, you know, Svetlana is,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: she's had more blocks. So you might see her more
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: on the right side as Taya Dubay is more of
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: a natural outside hitter. But the beauty is that they're
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: both good in the back row too. Very, very good.
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Like they both posted well over 200 digs last year.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So they can stay and they can both serve so
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: they can stay in that rotation and and play all
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: over the court. So what a luxury to have, to
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: have both of them. And it's going to be fantastic
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: for them. It's going to be just a huge help.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: Another big-time all-league player that they return is Adele Overson.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: I had last year ranked number 20 on the list.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: She's a six-foot-tall junior middle blocker. And when I say
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: middle blocker, I mean it. 41 blocks last year to
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: go with 196 kills, 48 digs, 19 aces, and 11 assists.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: That's another player that just improved. Her improvement was just
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: a skyrocket from freshman to sophomore year and really excited
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: to see what she does as a junior. This is
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: a very senior heavy team and she's that one junior
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: that has, you know, a lot of the varsity experience.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Everybody around her for the most part are seniors. So it's,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: you know, she'll be, she'll be kind of the big
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: time leader next year, but the way she can fit
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: in with this group, it's going to be awesome for
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: the Golden Eagles. And I know, I know the coach
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: is pretty excited about it. Ashley Pedig is a 5'3
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: senior libero. Last year, 140 digs, 14 aces, nine assists,
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: you know, playing the backcourt with Katrina Ferry. Obviously Katrina
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: got to everything. So taking that libero spot is a lot.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: I don't know about pressure, but you're following a really,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: really great player. And I think she's, the perfect kind
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: of player to, to, to take that, you know, she's,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: she was very good as a defensive specialist last year.
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Like I said, 140 digs and she can serve as well.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: So you don't have to worry about taking her out.
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: So that's, you know, those go together very, very well.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: I think she's going to have a great senior year.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: Sarfira Pachu is a five, eight senior right side player.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: another player that has good hops and get some power
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: into the ball. 91 kills last year, 36 digs, one
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: and a half blocks and an ace. So that's just,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: that's just more depth on the front line that they're
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: going to have teams are going to have to deal with.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: You know, bringing in Taya Dubé will probably, I don't
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: want to say force her, but it makes her not
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: have to play as much. But again, I mean, you can,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: You can give players breaks now, and it's only going
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: to help, especially if you go five sets. I mean,
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: playing that first game against Linden, that has five sets
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: written all over it. And when you're as deep as
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Ferndale is, that's going to lead to them. That's a
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: good thing for them. They're going to be able to
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: be rested for that. And it's players like Pachu that's
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: going to help that because she'll be able to come
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: in and spell somebody, and it's not going to be–
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: very much of a drop-off at all. Another great player
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: up the middle, up front, I should say, Sienna Briones.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Last year had 46 kills, 28 digs, and 11 blocks.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: She'll be more of a middle blocker than she was
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: last year. I think last year she played more outside hitter,
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: but a 5'10 can definitely handle the middle there. Arena Apkalikova.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: I knew I'm going to screw this one up. Arena Apkalikova.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: is a 5'7 middle blocker that had four kills and
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: one and a half blocks last year. She's a senior.
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: And then another senior that can play up front is
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: Jordan Twettle, who's 5'10 and plays on the right side.
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: She had two kills and three digs. So that's, my goodness,
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: that's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: players with varsity experience that's returning. And that's why I
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: think Ferndale has got a real shot to do some damage.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: 17-6 last year, and you returned nine players with varsity experience. That's,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: you know, you just don't see that very often, and
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: they have that. Now, the players that are also going
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: to be on the roster that have not played much varsity,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: 5'8 junior Carly Garner. She's a setter and defensive specialist. So,
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: you know, it's interesting to see who that setter is
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: going to be once Brooklyn graduates, because do you give
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: her a little bit of time at setter so she
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: can get some of it in, you know, before next year.
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: Another setter is Gia Parenti, who's also a junior, 5'6,
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: and she's a defensive specialist as well. So you have
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: two backup setters slash defensive specialists. So we'll see. They're
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: probably going to compete for that job next year, obviously,
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: with the best setter in the conference, or one of
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: the best setters, at least, in the conference is, you know,
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: is ahead of them. And, you know, so they're going to,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: I don't know if they're going to try to get
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: in and get some time. You know, we saw it
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: with Seaholm a few years ago. You had Emmy Lee
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: was a tremendous all-league setter. And when she was a senior,
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: she would get breaks every once in a while because
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: they wanted to put in Taylor Terrell as a freshman.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: And I understood that because you want her to get
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: some run on varsity with these other players around, all
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: these hitters around you because you're going to play with
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: all these hitters the next year. And I think it
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: was really beneficial the next year because then Seahorn went
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: on that run and got fourth in state. And a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: lot of it, I think, was because Taylor got some
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: time as a freshman. So we'll see if every once
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: in a while you'll see a different setter in there.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: It's going to be so hard to, you know, you're
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: going to have to tear Brooklyn Larrabee off the court, though.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: That's the only thing. But we'll see how that all
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: plays out. Veronica Melnick is a 5'5 sophomore, backline player,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: defensive specialist, libero. Chenoa Fasani is a 5'9 sophomore, outside hitter.
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: We've seen the Fasanis, the soccer players, really, really good athletes.
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: So I'm excited to see what she can do. Every
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: time I see a 5'9 sophomore outside hitter, I'm thinking,
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: she must be a pretty good athlete. But I haven't
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: seen her play yet, so that'll be exciting to see.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: And Colby Locker is a 5'8 freshman pin that might
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: be bouncing back and forth between Farshtey and JV and
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: kind of waiting her turn just a freshman. So those
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: are the Golden Eagles. Very exciting to see what they do.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: Like I said, they return... I don't know. If we
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: were tracking returns, like returning sets played, or sets played returning,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: or however you want to say it, just most minutes
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: on the court or whatever, Ferndale might have that. Lyndon
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: Christian returns a lot. Lyndon returns quite a bit. But Meridian,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: you know, a handful of players as well. But Ferndale
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: really returns quite a bit. I mean... he returned four
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: players with over a hundred kills each and almost a
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: fifth with Pachu. So that's, that's some offensive firepower there.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: And it's going to be a joy to watch. Well,
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: it's time to talk about the Linden lions were coached
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: by Chris Elsner last year, of course, 23 and Oh,
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: first place in state state champions for the first time
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: in school history, obviously an undefeated Northwest conference as well. Um,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: You know, it was funny. I was going back and
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I was there at the state tournament. I was going
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: back just looking at how they did at state last year,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: like what the actual scores were. And I think they
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: only dropped one set at the state tournament, the entire tournament.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: And that was to see home in the semifinals and
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: just how dominant that team was. And there were two
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: players on it that I had on the top 50
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: list that have graduated. Ryan Steffen, who's now at University
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: of Washington playing volleyball and And Campbell DeYoung, who is
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: one of the best athletes I've ever seen at the
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: high school level, you know, for anybody. So those are
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: two big-time weapons that are now gone. But you start
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: looking at what else they returned. They returned four of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the top 28 players from last year, in my opinion.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Number one, of course, Finley Parcher. She was the 2A
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: State Player of the Year in volleyball and basketball. it's
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: much like Brooklyn, there'll be, I I'm so blessed to
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: be able to start really diving in on all this
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: coverage with everything when she was a freshman. So I
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: got to see it from the very beginning. And so
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I'm so lucky for that because she really, I mean,
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: you can make a K you can make a case,
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: the best female athlete and, you know, walking County history. Um,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and just such a great person. And that's, what's so cool.
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: And the work ethic is tremendous. And, um, boy, I'm
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: really excited to hear what she's going to do after
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: high school. I know everybody's kind of waiting and, you know, Finley,
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: if you're listening, if you want to give walk and
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: preps the exclusive, when you want to announce it, you know,
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: I'm either, I have no qualms with that. Um, I'm
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: sure she'll probably want to announce it on her own
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: social media, but, um, But yeah, just what a great kid.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: And the way she's rising right now in the basketball
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: circuit and rankings and all that stuff is no surprise.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: But even as a volleyball player, you know, I mean,
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: the best in the state. I mean, you can't get
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: better than that. And last year, the numbers were outrageous.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: 388 kills, 254 digs, 42 aces, 30 assists, 7 blocks.
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: She returns as a pin and it is um pretty
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: crazy to see the air that she can get under
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: her uh you know just the grace with it but
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: then followed with the power um when she serves you
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: know when i go to the state tournament there's always
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: like three players that i see that do that college
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: serve where they're standing way back and they throw it
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: you know looks like 20 feet in the air and
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: then they run up and hit it. And it's like
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: the timing it takes to do that in the hand-eye coordination.
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: And Finley does that, you know, there's not a lot
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: of players that can do that on a regular basis with,
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: and to make it look effortless. And she does. Um,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: so really great to see that, that, you know, she's
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: got one more year and she'll be, you know, she'll be,
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: people will be gunning for Linden lines and she's the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: best player. And, and so they gotta be ready for her. Um,
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: And setting her up will be Izzy Stephan, who I
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: had number 11 last year. You know, she was All-State
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: last year, so probably a poor ranking on my part
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: to have her number 11. And that's why when I said,
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: you know, talking about Brooklyn Larrabee being the best setter
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: in the conference, and I was like, well, I was like,
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: she's– and I thought about Izzy right away because, boy,
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: she's so good too. I've just seen more of Brooklyn.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: But Izzy is fantastic and so great defensively, too. 20 blocks,
• 30:55
  Speaker 1: 148 digs, but 782 assists and a tremendous at-the-service line.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: 53 aces last year. That's more than anybody that's returning
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: on the linen lines. Also with 81 kills from the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: center position with that little woo-hoo. That's what I call
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: it when the center just puts it right over the
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: net and kind of surprises everybody. I call it a woo-hoo.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: And I love it. That's my favorite play in volleyball.
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: Every time it happens, I'm always thinking like they should
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: do that every time, but then it's, it doesn't, that
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: wouldn't work. Right. It doesn't, it doesn't. Yeah. That's not
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: how it works. It has to be a surprise every time.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: And it's about picking the right times. And she's, she's
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: great at that. But what, you know, another great athlete too,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: obviously basketball player and all that stuff, but she's got,
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: she's got college volleyball written all over. And, and so yeah,
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: that she's going to be a weapon as well. Another
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: big time weapon that, you know, man, I, the, the
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: force that she hits the ball with is, uh, you
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: just don't see that too often. I saw it up
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: close at the state tournament over and over again. That's
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Lexi Hermanutes had a rank number 25 last year. Now
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: as a five 11 senior outside hitter, you know, when
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: she started on the varsity as an underclassman, she was,
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: she was doing a lot of the, middle blocking and
• 32:13
  Speaker 1: different things like that. But then her offensive game, as
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: it developed and became so deadly, it really stood out
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: to me last year. And obviously she gets overshadowed by
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: Finley and Ryan last year. But man, if she was
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: on a different team, the amount of feeds she would
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: get from the setter would be outrageous. And she would
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: be way up near the top with kills and different things.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: But still, last year, 195 kills. 265 digs, which shows
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: that defensive prowess as well. That's more digs than anybody
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: on the team from last year that returns. 45 aces,
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: so great from the line, 15 assists, and 9 blocks.
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: Speaking of blocks, how about Sarah McPhee, the 5'8 senior
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: middle blocker? I had her ranked number 28 last year.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: She had 18 blocks. Don't see a lot of middle
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: blockers her height, but you don't see a lot of
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: athleticism like hers, she can really, really get off her feet.
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: 69 kills last year, 44 digs, 18 aces, and four assists.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: When I think about last year's team and winning the
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: state championship, you know, I was so lucky because when
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: they held up that trophy, I'm like five feet away,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: eight feet away. And when I close my eyes and
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: think about it, the first thing I see is the
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: expression on Sarah McPhee's face, just her, she was so
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: excited about it. And I was so glad that I
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: was able to get a good, get a good picture
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: of it. And, um, and then she goes and wins
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: a state title, like football and, you know, the leadoff
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: hitter on the fast pitch team. And she's back for
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: another year of all of it. She is, she is
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: something else. Um, very, you know, she has an intensity
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: about her when she's playing, but a fun-loving attitude as well.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: I think she, you could tell that she, and I
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: don't want to say, like, perfectionist, but you could tell that, like,
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: she really, really works at it, and the improvement every
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: year comes through, and she's one of the best players
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: that a lot of people do not talk about. So,
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: I'm sure they're super excited to have her back as well.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: Then there's a handful of players that or suited up
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: and played a little bit of varsity last year, but
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: now they're going to be much more heavily relied upon.
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: One of them is Hadley Lamp, a 5'4 junior. She
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: would come in quite a bit and serve a lot,
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: kind of almost like a serving specialist. And she was
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: a libero defensive specialist type player. Last year, she did
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: have 11 aces to go with nine digs and five assists,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: but she'll be playing quite a bit more. I would
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: imagine Brooklyn McDonald is another one, a six foot two
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: right side player, just a junior. She had 10 blocks
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: in limited time. So that, that stands out to me,
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: 26 kills, 14 digs and an assist. So a player
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: that's six foot two that can, Get a lot of
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: digs to that. So that tells me that she can
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: play on the back row as well, which is awesome
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: to see. Casey DeYoung, Campbell's little sister, you know, very,
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: you know, just another great athlete. Obviously saw her on
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: the playing fast pitch as well. Very limited time last
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: year as a libero defensive specialist. Four aces, two digs.
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: And Emma Ossink is a 5'8 junior pin. They got
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: a little bit of playing time last year. Had a kill,
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: a dig, and an ace. And then Olivia Stewart comes
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: up from the junior varsity. She's a junior, a 5'10
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: middle blocker. So you got another... player with some good, um,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: height right there up in the middle. So there's, there's
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: your nine and Linden tends to go with eight or
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: nine or maybe 10 every once in a while. Um,
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: and I mean, they, they probably want to have a
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: lot more players on the bench because they have some
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: awesome celebrations from their bench players, which are always fun
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: to see. And it's hard to do that with only
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: three players. Um, but yeah, I, um, this is a
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: team that is obviously, you know, got a target on
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: their back a little bit being the returning state champions,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: but a team that is going to be, you know,
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: focused on doing it again. And, and, you know, they, yeah,
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: they lost a couple of key players, but boy, they
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: returned some big time players. And so that's why I
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: think this Linden Ferndale match Wednesday night, I'm telling you
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: that's Wednesday night at Ferndale, seven o'clock, man, if you
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: don't have something going on, I, I highly recommend going
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: to this. It's just going to be what a way
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: to kick off the season. It's kind of like, like
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: the Daytona 500, right? It's like first race of the
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: year in NASCAR. It's like the biggest race and they
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: start that way. Like the NFL season, you know, the,
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: that Thursday night game, it's always the returning super bowl
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: champions hosting. Um, it's, so it kind of has that feel.
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be, it's going to be fantastic.
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: So those are the Linden lines. Uh, they're going to be,
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: you know, They just keep reloading, and obviously Coach Elsner
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: is amazing, and so they just do it the right way.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Always fun to watch them play. Next up, Lyndon Christian,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: the Lynx, coached by Kim Greisel, back now. Long-time coach before,
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: so awesome to see her back. What a resume that
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: she has. Last year, really, really good showing by the Lynx.
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: 17 and six record 11 and four in the conference
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: and got fifth in state at the one a classification.
• 37:49
  Speaker 1: They did lose three players that made the top 50
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: list last year. And edited young was number 32. Allie
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: Wright was number 16, a force up front. And of course,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: Ella Fritz, who was ranked number five, a tremendous center. And,
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: you know, when you lose your center, that's a big, big,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: you know, that's, that's hard to come back from, but, um,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: I tell you, Lyndon Christian, there's always an abundance of talent,
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: so we'll talk about that position in a little bit. Now,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: they do return four players that made the top 50
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: list last year, so not a lot of teams can
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: say that. Who else returns four or more? Let's see here.
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: Ferndale returns four. Lyndon returns four. Lyndon Christian returns four.
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I don't think anyone returns more than that though. No.
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: Squalicum has three, Seelum two, Meridian has three, Nooksack one,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: Mount Baker one, and Blaine and Bellingham do not return
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: anybody that made the top 50 list last year. So
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Lyndon Christian returning four, that's a great start for them.
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: So they have a lot of experience coming back. It
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: starts with Jocelyn Essise, the six foot two senior middle blocker.
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: She has committed to Seattle University, um, to play volleyball,
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: so I'm super excited for her with that. Again, a
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: lot of these seniors, I always think back that I
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: got to watch them as freshmen and watch them just
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: get better and better. She's one of those players. I
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: had her rank number 12 last year. A tremendous year
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: with 78 blocks. That is an outrageous number. 185 kills,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: 44 digs, and 29 aces. That's really cool to see
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: the 29 aces because sometimes a lot of tall middle blockers,
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: they're not the best servers or they don't play the
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: back line a ton. And for her to have 29
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: aces and 44 digs shows the complexity to her game
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: and all the things that she is able to do.
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: So that's really, that's really cool to see. Uh, number
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: 24 on my list last year was Tyra Dykstra. She's
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: now five, nine outside hitter, just a junior. Um, boy,
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: she can fly. You know, there's certain players that when
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: they go up for a kill, they just, they just
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: float or they just stay kind of stay in the
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: air longer. And, and it almost looks like an illusion.
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: And Tyra Dykstra is like that. I mean, I remember
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: her freshman year down in the state tournament, um, she
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: was probably 5'4, 5'5, and there she is playing the
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: front line next to players that are 6'2, and she
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: just rises above everybody, and it was like, holy cow. And,
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: you know, your name's Dykstra. She's going to be good.
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: That's just kind of how it is. But boy, it
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: just jumped off the screen when you're watching it, or
• 40:39
  Speaker 1: jumped off your eyeballs when you're there in person, and
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: that's what she did. And now being 5'9, and being stronger,
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: she high-jumped um, what was it? Five, four in the spring,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: her first year doing, doing high jump. So, you know,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: the talent's all there, uh, obviously tremendous basketball player. Uh,
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: so really excited to see her improvement this year as
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: kind of the main outside hitter of this team, 239
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: kills last year. So she returns the most kills, 154 digs,
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: 32 aces and 19 and a half blocks. So very,
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: very great numbers there. Uh, Ranked number 27 last year
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: was Lila Pereira, the 5'5 senior libero. Last year, 259 digs,
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: 51 aces. That's more than anybody on the team that returns,
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: which is a pretty good number. She also had 54
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: assists while not being a setter. So she's, you know,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: if it came to and the ball came over the
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: net and if Ella made the first go at it,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: then Lila would be the one to set up the hitter,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: and she did it 54 times, which is pretty impressive.
• 41:52
  Speaker 1: Now as a senior, she's one of the– there's not
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: a ton of liberos returning, but she is one of
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: them and does a really, really good job of it.
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: Rank number 44 last year was Sadie Meyer. She was
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: a 5'9 junior outside hitter. I thought it was– she
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: was one of those players that you just– I don't
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: want to say that she was kind of forgotten about,
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: but they had so many hitters last year. And so
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: she didn't play a ton, but, but she played, she did,
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: she did a lot when she was in there. And that,
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: that jumped off to me. That's why I had her ranked, uh,
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: in the top 50 list as a sophomore last year,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: she had 144 kills and 61 digs and 12 blocks.
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: I think that she exceeded my expectations. I knew she
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: would be pretty good. Um, You know, Ellie Meyer was
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: pretty good. She had that injury, though. She wasn't able
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: to play. So Sadie played really, really well. And so
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: I would expect her to even have a bigger year
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: again this year, which is huge for the Lynx. And, boy,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: it's such a great team. And that battle they have
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: with them and Meridian and Nooksack Valley kind of just
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: over the years, those three playing each other, going five
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: sets all the time. And, oh, man, I still say, like,
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: the loudest crowd I've ever heard. for a volleyball game
• 43:13
  Speaker 1: was at Nooksack Valley. They were hosting Linden Christian last year.
• 43:17
  Speaker 1: I was, I parked, I was walking up to the gym.
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: I was still outside. I was still a hundred, 200
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: feet away. And it was loud at that point. And
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: I thought, Holy cow. And when I got in there,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: like I sat right at the net, uh, I was
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: really happy to have Brady Bomber next to me because,
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: you know, he's a, He's an authoritarian of the school,
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: you know, and stuff like that, because I didn't know
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: what was going to happen. I felt not that I
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: was in danger, but boy, it was like right on
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: top of me. It was so loud. And you had
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: the student section on each side and they got into
• 43:50
  Speaker 1: it so much and it was intense. It was what
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: an atmosphere. And, um, and that's really cool. And the
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: teams are great. Again, Ellie Pierce is a five foot
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: five senior defensive specialist. Um, obviously great athlete plays basketball. Um,
• 44:06
  Speaker 1: tremendous of what she does and she kind of does
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: a lot of the dirty work a defensive specialist 110
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: digs last year 44 aces which is a huge number
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: four kills and nine assists so again that's another player
• 44:20
  Speaker 1: that's gonna be playing quite a bit charlotte miller it's
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: miller time when she's at the at the service line
• 44:27
  Speaker 1: i love that chant she's she's great when she comes
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: in to take over for someone who's going to serve
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: um 42 aces last year and it's like I didn't
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: what I don't keep track of is like percentage of aces.
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: And I want to say she'd probably be near the
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: top because she would go on runs every once in
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: a while. And the student section would really get into it.
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: So it's really cool to see also being a defensive
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: specialist with 67 digs. So she's a senior as well.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: And Regan Lenson got a little bit of time last year,
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: a 5'11 middle blocker. Probably now with the graduation to
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Allie Wright, you could probably see her play quite a
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: bit more. She had two kills and an ace last year.
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: And then there's a handful of players that did not
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: play on varsity last year, but one of them played
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: some varsity before that, and that's Taya Vandercoy, the tremendous
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: second baseman on the fast pitch team. She's a 5'6 senior.
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: And she might be the new setter. I'm not quite
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: sure yet. But she just didn't play last year. And
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: so I'm excited to see her back. Great, great athlete.
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Awesome kid. So she might be, because that's the big
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: question mark with the Lynx, right, is who's going to
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: take over for Ella Fritz? Will it be Taya Vandercoy?
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: Or will it be another Fritz, Emery Fritz, who's a
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: 5'10 sophomore? And she's a setter, but she could play
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: on the right side as well. So you got a
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: battle there. I'm sure they know, you know, they didn't
• 45:54
  Speaker 1: tell me, but I'm just going off the positions that
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: they wrote down. And then another sophomore setter is Lexi
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Ben Dixon. She's five foot 11. So helping with that,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: you know, on the front line, getting blocks and stuff
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: like that. So she could play some right side as well.
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: So all three of them, we'll see who ends up
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: being the setter. It's going to be very, very interesting.
• 46:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know if there'll be a rotation or what
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: they're going to do, but it's nice to kind of
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: have that one person that they can always rely on. And,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: and the cool thing is all three of them can
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: play a different position. If they're not the setter, Taya
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: could be a defensive specialist where Emery and Lexi could
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: play on the right side. And then there's Jess DeYoung,
• 46:32
  Speaker 1: who's a six foot sophomore, middle blocker, outside hitter, saw
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: great things on the basketball court as a freshman last year. So,
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: I would expect she's going to be quite athletic on
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: the hardwood for volleyball as well. So what a roster
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: that is. They're definitely going to be one of the
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: favorites in 1A. And it's going to be really interesting
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: to see how they do. Like I said, they bring
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: back a lot. So other teams are going to have
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: to be wary of that. And they've been a strong
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: team for years. And so keeping that tradition alive and
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: it's going to be, It's going to be really, really
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: cool to see. Well, let's move on to the Meridian
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Trojans who are right up there with Lyndon Christian as
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: far as kind of who are the top 1A teams
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: in the Northwest Conference this year. They are coached by
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: Angie Short. Their record last year was 18-7. They went
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: 11-4 in the Northwest Conference, and the magical run that
• 47:31
  Speaker 1: they made at State, wow. So glad I was able
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: to be there in person for that. They get all
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: the way to the State Championship game and then lost
• 47:39
  Speaker 1: to Chelan, Chelan who, You know, that's all they do
• 47:43
  Speaker 1: there is play volleyball. So that was they were the
• 47:46
  Speaker 1: heavy favorites in that one. But to get to the
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: state championship game and experience that was fantastic. Now, they had,
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: you know, a pretty memorable senior class with some with
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: some players that are going to be hard to replace,
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: especially up front. Gracie Papp. Chloe Bressler, Taya Benson, and
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: Kinsley Neal were great, great players. All of them made
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the top 50 list. But they, I mean, they, they, they,
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: they do return some pretty good players as well, but
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes it's, it's, it's, it's the unit and
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the unit that they've had the last few years and
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: what they've done in the state playoffs last few years
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: have been great. And you know, always playing on that
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: second day and, And the runs they've been on, especially
• 48:33
  Speaker 1: last year, was really magical. We'll have to kind of
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: see how that goes. They do return three players that
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: made the top 50 list, starting with Melanie Short. She
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: was ranked number three last year on the list, a
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: 5'7 junior outside hitter. Last year, led Whatcom County with
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: 391 kills. She also had 228 digs, 61 aces, 12 assists,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: and 11 blocks. So she returns with the most kills, digs, aces,
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: and blocks on her team that she leads in those
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: for returning players for her team. So a player that
• 49:11
  Speaker 1: can do a lot of everything, a player that you
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: rarely see ever take a break, and hard to believe
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: that she's just a junior this year. She's done a
• 49:20
  Speaker 1: lot of things the last few years, including being named
• 49:24
  Speaker 1: to the all state team as a freshman and a sophomore.
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: So she'll be right up there as far as the
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: top players in the conference. And she's another one of
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: those players that can really float in the air and
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: But she's so good at choosing her spots. It's not
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: always power with her. She can read the defense. She
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: knows how to just kind of put it over the
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: net when she needs to. And that's a talent that
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: you just, you know, it's hard. I don't know if
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: that's easy to teach because it's just an innate ability
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: to see what the defense is doing and be able
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: to react to it. Another player that, again, I go
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: back to watching them as freshmen. and then seeing them
• 50:07
  Speaker 1: all these years. And that's Eden Bernardi, who's now a senior, 5'7,
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: outside hitter. She was ranked number 15 last year. Just
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: one of my favorites because the all-out gusto that she
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: plays every sport with. She's one of those players, much
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: like Campbell DeYoung last year, where she would go after
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: every ball. She didn't care if there was a chair
• 50:30
  Speaker 1: or a wall or a person or whatever. Eden Bernardi
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: is the exact same way. Just the way she attacks
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: everything is so awesome to see. And I was talking
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: to her when I went to practice. I said, I
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: can't believe you're a senior. It just went so fast.
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: And she's like, yeah, I can't believe it either. She's like,
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: it's going to feel real when it's the first day
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: of school. Well, by now they've had the first day
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: of school, so hopefully she's adapting to it well. And I,
• 50:55
  Speaker 1: you know, what the numbers that she's put up over
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: the years and everything, I mean, being– She's just one
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: of the best at everything she does. Great defensively, a
• 51:05
  Speaker 1: lot of power offensively, unbelievable at the service line, really
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: hard to take her off the court. And she's passionate
• 51:14
  Speaker 1: about it. You know, I've seen her brought to tears
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: in a loss. I've seen her brought to tears in
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: a win. That's somebody that loves it, loves her teammates.
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: And her teammates want to play that much better for her.
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: And so that's really infectious for And one of my
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: favorites is she's, she's just tremendous. 221 kills last year,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: 217 digs, 50 aces, nine assists and seven blocks. A
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: player that can really do it all. Another player that
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: can really do it all is Amelia Koning. Who's now
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: a senior as well. Five foot five. She was ranked
• 51:45
  Speaker 1: number 38 on the list last year. And she's a
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: player that I'm really curious who their libero is going
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: to be. It could be her, but she's got the
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: crazy hops where she could play on the front line too.
• 51:59
  Speaker 1: as a right side player. So I really don't know
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: where she's going to play. She's just one of those
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: super ultra Uber athletically gifted kids that could do a
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: lot of different things. And she's also one of those
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: players that you just love to have because she's willing
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: to do all those different things. Last year, 126 digs,
• 52:19
  Speaker 1: 26 aces, 17 kills, eight assists and a block. She's
• 52:25
  Speaker 1: one of my biggest curiosities this year as far as
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: what position. Because I think she almost plays positionless. She
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: could do so many different things just because of the talent. And,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: you know, you kind of want your libero, right? You
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: want to block someone into that spot. And will it
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: be her? It's really, really hard to say. I think
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: that she would be... the logical choice as far as
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: the most varsity experience of someone that's played the back
• 52:53
  Speaker 1: line last few years. Um, but we'll have to wait
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: and see. I don't know if there's, you know, another
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: libero in waiting that's coming up, whether that's Haley Thomas
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: or Annika Martin or Presley Culp or who would, who
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: that would be. Um, but there's, it sounds like there
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: is some competition there. Um, Other players that got a
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: little bit of playing time last year on that big
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: state run, Sierra James, who's a 5'10, senior, middle blocker,
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: right side player, had 11 kills, 8 blocks, 7 digs,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: and 2 assists. Saw a lot of her playing basketball,
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: so it's another player with really good length and height,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: which is nice to have. Madden Klein-Millars is another very
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: talented athletic player who's tall, 5'11, junior, player on the
• 53:37
  Speaker 1: right side, got some power to her game. 13 digs,
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: five kills last year and a block. Uh, Kendall Stacy
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: moves into that setter spot. Um, she kind of waiting
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: her turn. I think she's probably ready for it. She
• 53:50
  Speaker 1: had 28 assists last year and some limited time at setter, uh,
• 53:54
  Speaker 1: with also with three digs, but being five foot 11
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: is really nice to have, which I've talked about when
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: you have a tall setter, that really helps, um, defensively
• 54:03
  Speaker 1: on the front line, uh, with your right side player
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: going up for blocks and stuff like that. So, um,
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: I'm really excited to see what she could do. I
• 54:12
  Speaker 1: think she's going to be a pretty darn good player.
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Meridian's had some good setters over the years, and so
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: she kind of falls in line with that next one. Now,
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: the rest of the players have not played varsity volleyball,
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: so it'll be kind of interesting to see where they
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: fit in. And you do have some freshmen in here.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: You have three of them. So whenever I see a freshman,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: you know, volleyball is one of those sports that a
• 54:34
  Speaker 1: freshman can come in and contribute right away. And when
• 54:37
  Speaker 1: they do, I'm always surprised only because I didn't see
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: him in eighth grade. So I have no idea. And,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: you know, coaches play things pretty close to the vest.
• 54:47
  Speaker 1: So they don't want to give away anything. So you
• 54:50
  Speaker 1: never know when a freshman is going to stand out
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: and just, you know, I remember when Melanie Short was
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: a freshman, she was the only new player on the
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: varsity roster that year, the only one. So to me,
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: she was, you know, she was kind of going to
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: be the player that doesn't play the most. And she had,
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: she was all state as a freshman. So sometimes I
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: just don't know. And so I'm not quite sure, but
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: these other players that have not played varsity, Vivian Larson,
• 55:15
  Speaker 1: a five 11 middle blocker junior. Uh, so that's, that's
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: pretty good height right there up front, uh, along with
• 55:23
  Speaker 1: Molly Collins, who's also five 11 middle blocker plays some
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: right side as well. And she's just a freshman. Um,
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: So that you got some pretty good height there. Anna
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: Nichols is a five, 10 setter. So you got another
• 55:36
  Speaker 1: setter there that might be battling with Kendall Stacy. She's
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: a five, 10 sophomore. And then also back there in
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: the back line, uh, Haley Thomas, a five, five sophomore,
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: along with Annika Martin, a five, four senior. I kind
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: of talked about those two earlier and Presley Culp, a five,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: four freshmen. They're all defensive specialists slash liberos that play
• 55:57
  Speaker 1: in the back row. Um, We've seen Annika Martin playing basketball,
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: so we know what she can do. So that'll be interesting.
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: And then another freshman outside hitter, Kayla Goodwin, is 5'8. Again,
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: whenever I see a freshman outside hitter that's playing varsity,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: I'm always like, uh-oh, this could be a player that
• 56:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not quite sure about, and she's going to stand out,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: and maybe it's her. So it's a good mix for
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: the Trojans of some players that have played a ton
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: of varsity, some players that have played some varsity, and
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: some younger players that are new to it. So getting
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: them to all gel and play together and do all that,
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: Coach Short should probably be pretty excited with this group.
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: And so we'll have to see how they do. And
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: I would imagine that a trip to state once again
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: is on their bucket list. So we'll have to see
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: how that all shakes out. Let's go out to Deming.
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: The Mount Baker Mountaineers are coached by Jennifer Galbraith. And
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: their record last year, 2-15. They went winless in the
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: conference last year. They did graduate one player that was
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: on the top 50 list last year. That was number 43,
• 57:08
  Speaker 1: Maddie Lewis. And they do bring back a player that
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: made the top 50 list last year. That was number 48,
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: Rebecca Suarez, who is a 6'2 senior that plays on
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: that front line. Last year, she racked up 56 blocks
• 57:23
  Speaker 1: to go with 86 kills, 20 digs, three aces and
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: four assists. Obviously a tremendous basketball player, still learning the
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: game of volleyball, but with that six foot two frame
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: and being athletic enough, that's a great force to have
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: right there in the front line because you could build
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: off that with other spots. An outside hitter that's a senior,
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: Violet Fox, played quite a bit last year, 40 kills,
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: 17 digs, three blocks and assists. Another player that played
• 57:54
  Speaker 1: quite a bit was Layla Porter. She's the junior setter.
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: She's also 5'8, had 55 assists to go with 76 digs,
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: 18 aces, and 6 kills. And then another player that
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: was a really, really good server last year in her
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: limited time was Emma Richardson, who's a 5'8, outside hitter.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: She's also a senior. Really good strength on the outside
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: hitting shots, 29 kills. But also to rack up 23
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: aces last year in her limited time, that really stood
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: out to me, 10 blocks and 21 digs. So those
• 58:29
  Speaker 1: are the four players that have the most varsity experience.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: You've got a handful of players that Coach Galbraith is
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: really excited about that will be making a lot of
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: their varsity debuts. Ella Horstman is a 5'5 junior defensive specialist.
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: Obviously see her playing fast pitch. Peyton Zender is a
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: 5'4 junior back row player. libero defensive specialist as well
• 58:53
  Speaker 1: ryan harkness a player that we've seen a lot on
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: the basketball court a 5-4 junior outside hitter so you've
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: seen a lot of these 5-5 and 5-4 juniors uh
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: hayden mcdonald's is a 5-5 senior outside hitter uh her
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: and ryan harkness both shorter for outside hitters but that
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: tells me quite athletic. And so that's really cool to see.
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: Lily Reeves is a 5'7 senior outside hitter. Seen her
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: play basketball, so You know that she's active and athletic
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: and can do that on the outside. So I'm expecting
• 59:24
  Speaker 1: some cool things there. Tegan Huntley is a 5'4 junior
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: libero defensive specialist. Lily Laverne, I think, has got a
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: bright future. She's a 5'8 middle blocker and slash right
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: side player. So a younger player there that is going to,
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: I think, come up and be one of their top
• 59:43
  Speaker 1: players for years to come. And then 5'8 freshman... Middle
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: blocker is Ellie Galbraith. Saw her play a little bit
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: of catcher and shortstop last year on the varsity fast
• 59:55
  Speaker 1: pitch team as an eighth grader. So very, very athletic
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: as well. Both her parents, extremely, you know, tremendous athletes.
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 1: And so no surprise there. So really excited to see
• 1:00:06
  Speaker 1: what she can do. Only 5'8 right now, but I
• 1:00:10
  Speaker 1: would assume she might get a little bit taller. She's
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: just a freshman middle blocker. I know they're very, very
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: excited about this group, so that's really, really cool. And
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: I think there will be some winnable matches this year
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: in the conference. You know, they get on a run
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: every once in a while. I mean, they played tremendously
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: well against Nooksack Valley last year, who was within an
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: eyelash to go into state. I think that things are
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: on the right– you know, they're on the right path.
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: And Coach Galbraith is– she– she's really into it and
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: she's really trying to steer this program the right way.
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: And I think everybody out there in Deming is really
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: excited about her and she's going to be around a while.
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 1: It's something you don't need to worry about. And I
• 1:00:54
  Speaker 1: think that's, that's what you need. You need that consistency.
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: You need that. You need to, You have to build
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: it from somewhere, and I think she's building it the
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: right way. She's building the foundation the right way. So
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: that's really cool to see, and I think there will
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: be an improvement as a team this year. So it'll
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 1: be fun to see how that all shakes out. Well,
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: let's go to the last 1A team to talk about.
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 1: That's the Nooksack Valley Pioneers, coached by Holly St. Marie.
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: Last year, 15-6 overall record, a 12-3 record in the conference,
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: but were denied– entry to the state tournament, which, again,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: only taking two teams, it's a real bummer because, boy,
• 1:01:39
  Speaker 1: that's a state-caliber team. That's just the way it goes, though.
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: They beat teams in the regular season that did pretty
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: well at the state tournament. I think it's a good group.
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: They did lose some big-time players. Grace DeHogh, You know,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: she was ranked number 10 last year. Number 23 last
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: year was Avery Juergens. Number 29 last year was Peyton Bartle.
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: Number 34 last year was Gracie Rutgers. They had a
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: few other seniors, too. I mean, Annie Stremler. You know,
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: it's going to be tough to replace those players. And
• 1:02:19
  Speaker 1: when I was talking to Coach St. Marie about it, yeah,
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: there was a lot of talent, but it was a
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: lot of leadership, too. And so... you know, coming into
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: this year with a lot of new starters and a
• 1:02:30
  Speaker 1: lot of new faces, it's going to be, it's a
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: different group. It's a new group. And how are they
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: going to gel together? We'll just have to wait and see. Now,
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: the great thing they have is they returned one of
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: the top players in the conference with Elizabeth DeLange. I
• 1:02:46
  Speaker 1: had her ranked seventh in the top 50 list last year.
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: She's a six foot two senior. She's played middle blocker
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: the last few years, but she might play some outside
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: hitter this year. because of that power that she has.
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: 222 kills last year is an incredible number as a
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: middle blocker. So that number might even get bigger as
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: an outside hitter. She also had 77 blocks to go
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 1: with 26 aces and 17 digs. Also up front in
• 1:03:12
  Speaker 1: the middle is senior Reagan Burke, who played quite a
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: bit last year. Five foot 11 inch senior had 34
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 1: kills and 17 blocks to go with two assists. And
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: their third senior is Carson Olney, who's been a back
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: row player the last few years. She might be the
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 1: libero this year. We'll just have to wait and see.
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: She might just remain as a defensive specialist. She had
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: 100 digs last year, 17 aces, 5 assists, and a kill.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: Also in the back row that played quite a bit
• 1:03:40
  Speaker 1: last year in serving situations, but she'll be playing a
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: heck of a lot more now, will be Kendall Juergens,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: a 5'6 sophomore. She had 15 digs and 10 aces
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: in very limited time. But I think they liked what
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: they saw, especially at the service line last year as
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: a freshman. So she got some run that way. But
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: like I said, her minutes, her time on the court
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: will be heavily, yeah, not improved, but heavily upped, I guess,
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 1: this year. And for good reason. A very, very good player.
• 1:04:12
  Speaker 1: 5'7 junior right side player is Natalie Harmon. She had
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: seven kills last year and three digs. And I'm not
• 1:04:20
  Speaker 1: quite sure who the new setter will be, but it
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: could be five foot five sophomore Finley Mitchell. She had
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: a couple of assists last year and a dig. So
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 1: she returns with some, a little bit of varsity experience
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 1: as a setter, you know, Peyton Bartle doing the setting
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: for four years. It's going to be hard to replace her.
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: They also have Eva Smith, who's a five, seven freshmen
• 1:04:45
  Speaker 1: who can play setter as well. So we'll have to
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: see their, I have no idea if one is ahead
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: of the other one or if there's a battle or what,
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: but you always want to have two setters on the
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: team because it's such a specific situational position that one
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: goes down, you've got to have another one ready. So
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: I just don't know who the one is and who
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: the two is. Also making their varsity debuts will be
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: Holly Braun, a 5'7 sophomore middle blocker. McKenna Denson. I
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: thought Holly Braun was a junior. Maybe, maybe, I don't know.
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: Maybe she is a sophomore. I can't remember. McKenna Denson
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: is a five foot seven inch freshman pin. Jacqueline Burke
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: is another freshman. She's five foot 10 middle blocker. Allie Reynolds,
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: another outside hitter who is a freshman that's five foot six.
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: And Mallory Mason, who saw great things at shortstop on
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: the fast pitch diamond. She's a five, seven defensive specialist
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: slash slip arrow. She's just a junior freshman. So it's
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: going to be a lot of new faces. You know,
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: they're going to rely heavily upon the three seniors. They
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: all have quite a bit of varsity experience. Then there's
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: those three other players that are sophomores and juniors that
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: have played a little bit here and there. And they
• 1:06:03
  Speaker 1: will have– we'll see how fastly they can– how quickly,
• 1:06:06
  Speaker 1: I should say– get up to speed with the rest
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 1: of the varsity players. And then there's the other six
• 1:06:12
  Speaker 1: players that do not have varsity experience. And it's about,
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: you know, who picks it up and who can, who
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: they can rely upon and the rotation and who can
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: serve and play defense and all that other stuff. So
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: it's such a tremendous program. And I kind of looked
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: at it, you know, without knowing how the summer went
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: or anything. And I thought, man, they lose so much.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: Can they, get back to where they were only three
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: losses last year in the conference. That's, I mean, that
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: was tremendous. And I talked to some other coaches and
• 1:06:39
  Speaker 1: they said, yeah, we, we, we played them in the summer.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: They were great. So that tells me that they're ready
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: and they, they will be, they will be a force
• 1:06:48
  Speaker 1: as well. And so again, then with the one A's
• 1:06:52
  Speaker 1: playing each other multiple times, we're going to be in
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: for some big battles out there, East in the County.
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: And that'll be always fun to watch and, you know,
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: home and away back and forth. That'll be really, really cool.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: Let's jump back to the 2A now and talk about
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: the Sehome Mariners, who were coached by Clayton Sinn. Last year,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 1: what a magical year that was. 16-6 record, 12-3 in
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: the conference. They got fourth in state. And I'm so
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: glad I got to be there for that as well,
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: get a front row seat, because that was a really,
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: really fun run that they went on. Now, they do
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: lose five players that were named on the top 50
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: list last year. That might be... the team that loses
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: the most players from the list from a year ago.
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: McKenna Andrews, Hayden Neviadomsky, Bridget Adams, Anya Winter, and Lily
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 1: Jude all graduate. So a lot of new spots to
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: be had by other players. And what Coach Sin does
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: such a great job of is when he knows that
• 1:07:54
  Speaker 1: a player is going to get more playing time the
• 1:07:58
  Speaker 1: next year, he's really good at fitting them in in
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: certain situations during a match where it's important to play them,
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: and then the next year they're ready. So I think
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: he's got a handful of players that did that that
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: will be ready for a bigger dose of action, especially
• 1:08:21
  Speaker 1: two of them that I'm going to mention in a
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: little bit. But there are two that have a lot
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: of varsity experience, starting with Taylor Terrell, the 5'8 junior setter,
• 1:08:29
  Speaker 1: Last year, 689 assists, eight and a half blocks, 160 digs.
• 1:08:34
  Speaker 1: She also had 47 kills and 22 aces. Really tough
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: player to get off the court. Really, really great player.
• 1:08:42
  Speaker 1: Awesome basketball player, obviously. But she will be, you know,
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: the team will go as far as she goes. And
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: I think, you know, and I was talking to Coach
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: Sin about it, about how they lose a lot of experience.
• 1:08:55
  Speaker 1: But I said, but you return your setter. And every
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: time a team returns their setter, boy, that's such a
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: great thing to have because it makes everybody else better
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: because she can really set them up, as they say.
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: A big-time, massive outside hitter with a lot of power
• 1:09:12
  Speaker 1: and a lot of hang time in her jumping as
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: well is Paige Florey. She is now a senior, 5'8.
• 1:09:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, I remember watching her as a freshman. And, again,
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: Coach Sin was really good at, you know, putting her
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: in the right situations to kind of learn. And she
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: was such a great server. Like, she would go in
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: and serve a little bit, and she'd come out. And
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: she was a weapon. And now, being a senior, it's
• 1:09:35
  Speaker 1: like I blink, and she's already a senior. It's crazy
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: how that happens. But last year, like I said, with
• 1:09:40
  Speaker 1: the serving, I mean, she's only gotten better 58 aces
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: last year. Fifty-eight. That is a lot of aces. She
• 1:09:46
  Speaker 1: also had 253 kills, 200 digs, eight blocks. You know,
• 1:09:51
  Speaker 1: when you look at the digs and the kills and
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: the aces, she brings more than anybody else on that team.
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: So she will be heavily relied upon offensively, defensively. It's
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: her senior year. I think she's got all conference written
• 1:10:03
  Speaker 1: all over. I think it's going to be a great,
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: great year for her. Jackie Hurley is a player that
• 1:10:08
  Speaker 1: I'm really interested in too, because she's one of those
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: players that I was talking about. They got some great
• 1:10:13
  Speaker 1: experience in the back row, and she'll probably take over
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: that libero spot of the 5'2 senior. And I've heard
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: that she had an awesome summer. And with all these
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: new liberos, you know, it's like, who's going to stand out? And,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: you know, there were some great ones last year that
• 1:10:31
  Speaker 1: were all seniors with Campbell DeYoung and Katrina Ferry and
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: McKenna Andrews. And there were some, I mean, there were
• 1:10:36
  Speaker 1: some great ones. And so those, all those players have
• 1:10:40
  Speaker 1: to be replaced. And I think Jackie Hurley out of
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: all of them will be the best replacement. I think,
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: I think she's going to be fantastic. So I'm really
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: excited about that. 142 digs last year, six assists. Yeah,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: that'll be really cool. And again, coach was so good
• 1:10:55
  Speaker 1: at getting her in, in some key situations to get
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: that experience. Another player that's played a lot the last
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: couple of years in key situations in the back row,
• 1:11:05
  Speaker 1: especially at the service line is, has been Jillian Parfait,
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: the 5'6 junior. Last year, 22 aces, 39 digs, four assists.
• 1:11:14
  Speaker 1: I think she'll have a lot more minutes now coming up,
• 1:11:18
  Speaker 1: playing in the back line. Definitely want to keep her
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: in the rotation for serving. Yeah, I think that she's–
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: She's going to be a big-time part of what they've
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 1: done and a player that, as a freshman and as
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: a sophomore, got a valuable experience. And it's going to
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: lead into now her junior year where she will be
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: able to do some really, really good things. So I'm
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: excited about that. And then there's three more players that
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: got that– Just that touch of experience, got to see
• 1:11:47
  Speaker 1: it up close, got to go to the state tournament and,
• 1:11:49
  Speaker 1: you know, witness these things. Brooklyn Flamer, a 5'11 junior
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: middle blocker. Catherine Staten, a 5'7 setter, but also could
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: play on the right side. And Radler Rosellison is a
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: 5'9 junior outside hitter. I think all three of those players,
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 1: you're going to see their– you're going to see rapid–
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: I don't want to say improvement. Rapid playing time will
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: be increased rapidly, I guess. And it's good because they
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: lose a lot of the middle blocking. You had Anya
• 1:12:26
  Speaker 1: Winter and Lily Jude up front doing that kind of stuff.
• 1:12:29
  Speaker 1: And so having Brooklyn Flamer step right in 5'11, I think,
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: is going to be huge. Catherine Staten can play up
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: front as well on the right side, but she could
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: spell Taylor Terrell at center if needed. And Radler Rosellison
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 1: could back up Paige Flory as an outside hitter. So
• 1:12:46
  Speaker 1: you're getting these players that can come in and make
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: a difference right away next year. And that'll be huge
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: because they're all underclassmen as well. And so the year
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: after that, it can just keep on continuing. And that's
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: how you build a great program. And that's what Sehome has.
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: Players that are still looking for their first varsity experience
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: but are on the varsity roster this year, Hadley Grovo,
• 1:13:07
  Speaker 1: the 5'4 junior libero. Cora Noskov-Sanchez is a 5'9 sophomore
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: frontline player, a pin player, outside hitter, right side, can
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: kind of do those things on either side. Maren Stiles
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: is a 5'8 sophomore right side player, can also be
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: a setter as well. And then there's a couple of
• 1:13:28
  Speaker 1: middle blockers, Avery Kingsley and Sophia Gage. And they might
• 1:13:33
  Speaker 1: get playing time before the other ones purely because they
• 1:13:37
  Speaker 1: the need for the position up front. So we'll just
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: have to wait and see. Again, Clayton Sin is very
• 1:13:43
  Speaker 1: good at his rotations and finding the right times to
• 1:13:50
  Speaker 1: swap there, to sub in and out. And I just
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: think that, you know, he's got a lot of newcomers
• 1:13:58
  Speaker 1: to the varsity level, but he's got the right pieces
• 1:14:02
  Speaker 1: with experience and it's, it's, it's going to be a
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: good mix and, you know, getting the state might be
• 1:14:07
  Speaker 1: a little tougher. I've heard that it's only going to
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: be two now out of the district from, from two way,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: obviously Linden is stacked and Archbishop Murphy returns a lot
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: of their roster. So getting, you know, a second spot
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: there will be really, really tough. And, you know, they
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: took three last year and I believe see home was
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: the third and then they go to state and get fourth. So,
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: I mean, There you go. I mean, it's a really
• 1:14:33
  Speaker 1: good conference. It's a really good district. So we'll just
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: have to wait and see there. But I expect them
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: to do pretty well. The last team to talk about,
• 1:14:41
  Speaker 1: the Squalicum Storms, coached by Kinsey Morris. I tell you,
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 1: every time I go to practice, I don't know if
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: a team is more excited to see me. I don't
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: know what it is. I mean, they are so welcoming
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: and happy and excited every year. And so, you know,
• 1:15:01
  Speaker 1: they treat me so well. And I always feel so
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: honored to go out there and watch them practice and
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: take their pictures because they're very, very excited about it.
• 1:15:10
  Speaker 1: So that's really cool. Last year they went 8-11, 7-8
• 1:15:13
  Speaker 1: in the Northwest Conference. They did have that big upset
• 1:15:16
  Speaker 1: win over Seaholm. So, you know, they have, you know,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: they can ride that. And it was a great year
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: for them. They do lose Jolie Paz, Archer Burns, Gwen Foye.
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: who I call the three amigos, even at football games,
• 1:15:30
  Speaker 1: soccer games, whatever. They're always hanging out together, get a
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: picture of all three of them together over the years.
• 1:15:37
  Speaker 1: And so it's going to be weird to not see
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: them there. But it's a group of players that, you know,
• 1:15:44
  Speaker 1: have a lot of varsity experience again. So I would
• 1:15:47
  Speaker 1: expect this team to be one of the most improved
• 1:15:49
  Speaker 1: teams from last year. I really think they have all
• 1:15:54
  Speaker 1: the pieces to do it. Their top player, in my opinion,
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: is Bronwyn Jones, the 5'3 senior libero. Not a lot
• 1:16:04
  Speaker 1: of liberos returned, but she is one of them. She's
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: one of the best ones. 272 digs last year, 40 assists,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: 30 aces, and 5 kills. They also returned their setter, which, again,
• 1:16:15
  Speaker 1: that's always a huge plus when you do. Alyssa Rosselli
• 1:16:19
  Speaker 1: is a 5'3 senior. She was ranked number 42 last year,
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: had 439 assists, 116 digs, 33 kills, 22 aces. So
• 1:16:29
  Speaker 1: that's a player when, when, when I see those stats,
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: that tells me right away, that's a player that never
• 1:16:33
  Speaker 1: leaves the floor and can do everything well. She's a
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: very good at the service line. She will give you
• 1:16:38
  Speaker 1: those surprise kills every once in a while. She can
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: play defense. She, you know, she, she knows how to
• 1:16:44
  Speaker 1: get the digs and again, a lot of assists too.
• 1:16:48
  Speaker 1: So that's, again, that's a player that, um, She's one
• 1:16:52
  Speaker 1: of my favorites as well. She's very animated on the
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: court and really gets her teammates involved and is a
• 1:16:59
  Speaker 1: player that is always positive and you always can turn to.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: And that's infectious. And that's a really great thing to
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: have on the court when things are going well and
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: when things are not going well because she can get
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: those things turned around for the team with encouragement and
• 1:17:14
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. So that's awesome to see. Another great
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: player is, was number 45 on the list last year.
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: And that is senior middle blocker, five foot nine Tiana Thompson.
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: She's a blocking machine, just extremely athletic, great basketball player.
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: She gets a lot of blocks in basketball as well.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: She had 75 kills, but she had 26 and a
• 1:17:34
  Speaker 1: half blocks, 12 digs, great timing, um, on, at the net. She's, she's, uh,
• 1:17:41
  Speaker 1: She knows if it's going to be like a quick
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: kill or a touch kill or a powerful kill. She
• 1:17:45
  Speaker 1: can read it really well and get up there for
• 1:17:47
  Speaker 1: the block. And that is so beneficial to have. Penelope
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: Darius is another three-year varsity player. She's now a senior, 5'8,
• 1:17:57
  Speaker 1: outside hitter. Was injured a little bit last year, but
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: was able to come back. 56 kills, 21 digs, three aces,
• 1:18:05
  Speaker 1: three and a half blocks. I think she's poised to
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: have a pretty big year. I'm excited for that. Um,
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: she's another walk and preps favorite. I mean, she, I
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: think she has a walk and preps badge cause she's
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: helped me out taking photos at games and does a great,
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: great job. It's another one of those great kids, which
• 1:18:21
  Speaker 1: is really cool to see. And I'm glad she's, um,
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: you know, gonna have one more year of volleyball. That's
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: really fun to watch. Avery Kettman is a tremendous six
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: foot tall sophomore, middle blocker, right side, great athletic ability,
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: tremendous basketball player. 68 kills, 19 and a half blocks
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: last year, but also 29 digs, 18 aces. So when
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: you have a player, again, I brought it up before,
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: when you have a player that's six feet tall that
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: can play in the back and get a lot of points.
• 1:18:50
  Speaker 1: of digs and can serve, that's what a luxury that
• 1:18:52
  Speaker 1: is to have to be able to keep her on
• 1:18:54
  Speaker 1: the court and that she can do all those things
• 1:18:58
  Speaker 1: and just a sophomore. So really excited about that. Regan
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: Wheeler is a senior. She was the liberal or not
• 1:19:05
  Speaker 1: the liberal last year. She was a defensive specialist last
• 1:19:08
  Speaker 1: year with 93 digs. Um, she likes to say that
• 1:19:12
  Speaker 1: she's six foot seven, but we all know that's not true.
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: She is four foot 11 and she is, um, just
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: a bundle of dynamite. She is gets, she gets after
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: every ball that she can and really, really fun to watch, uh,
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: you know, a crowd favorite when, when she's out there.
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: So now she's in her senior year. So those are the,
• 1:19:31
  Speaker 1: those are the players that, I mean, that's what, that's
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: six players right there with a lot of varsity experience.
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: And you do have a few, uh, that had a
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: little bit of varsity experience last year. Capucine Rooney is
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: a 5'8 sophomore. She's kind of the next setter in line,
• 1:19:46
  Speaker 1: but also can play on the right side. She did
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: have a couple assists last year. And Campbell Tuninga is
• 1:19:52
  Speaker 1: a 5'6 junior outside hitter who had a dig last year. Very,
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: very little varsity playing time last year for those two,
• 1:19:59
  Speaker 1: but they suited up a lot. They saw a lot,
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: and they'll probably get a lot more playing time this
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: upcoming year. And then you have four players that are
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: going to be new to the varsity squad, starting with
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: junior Lola Copenhaver. She's a 5'11 middle blocker, right side player,
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: just a junior. So more height there up front, which
• 1:20:19
  Speaker 1: will be good to have. Sirit Sandhu is a 5'9
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: sophomore middle blocker. Could probably play on the right side
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: as well. So again, a lot of height here and
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: a lot of athletic ability here. When I saw her
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: at practice, she looked like she belonged to varsity. No
• 1:20:38
  Speaker 1: problem there. Then there's a junior, Abigail, five feet tall,
• 1:20:44
  Speaker 1: libero defensive specialist. Saw her a lot on the golf
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: course last spring, so that's cool to see her playing volleyball.
• 1:20:51
  Speaker 1: And then there's five-foot-six freshman outside hitter, Lola Froese. And again,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: whenever I see a freshman outside hitter that's playing on varsity,
• 1:21:00
  Speaker 1: I always kind of hold my breath because... those are
• 1:21:03
  Speaker 1: usually pretty darn good players. So we'll just have to
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: wait and see where she fits in with a squalicum
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: storm rotation. I think it's going to be, it's going
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: to be a lot of fun. I tell you, I'm,
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: I'm super excited about this season and it's going to
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: start right away too. You know, you're, I'm planning on
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: putting this out. I'm recording this on Monday night. I'm
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: planning on putting it out Tuesday during the day. And
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: the season starts on Wednesday. I mean, it's, You know,
• 1:21:29
  Speaker 1: usually there's like one non-league game during the week before
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: the football games start. Like traditionally the last couple of years,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: it's been Squalicum against Archbishop Murphy. And this year there's
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: league games right off the bat. I mean, it's, you know,
• 1:21:41
  Speaker 1: here we go. And on Wednesday and then on Thursday again,
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: and then on Saturday. So there's a lot of that
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: happening to get all the games in and, you know,
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: be ready for it because it's coming. But that has
• 1:21:55
  Speaker 1: been the 2026 season. volleyball preview. I can't believe it. It's,
• 1:22:02
  Speaker 1: it's so cool that it's here and, and, uh, really
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: excited about the season and what a run that these
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: teams made last year. I know I'm, I'm going to
• 1:22:09
  Speaker 1: book my trip to the Yakima sun dome. I'm just
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: curious to see who, what teams will be joining me
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: out there. And it's going to be a lot of fun,
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: just a, just a couple, two and a half months
• 1:22:17
  Speaker 1: away from that, which is so exciting, but this has
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: been episode 438, the 2026 volleyball preview. And be ready
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: to join me on the next podcast, which will come
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: out in a few days. It will be the week
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: one preview, the Gatorade game day preview, which is always
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun as well. So until then, I
• 1:22:37
  Speaker 1: will talk to you later.