Lady Bears capture fifth place in State volleyball finals

YAKIMA – The Brewster Lady Bears varsity volleyball team made it into the quarterfinal round of the 2018 State Volleyball Championships at the Yakima SunDome last Thursday, Nov. 8, and came away with the fifth-place trophy.

Brewster drew Ocosta in the opening round of competition Thursday morning and defeated the Lady Wildcats in the best of five games, winning the first, 25-13, losing the second and third,15-25, and 23-25, and taking the final two, 25-16, and 15-6.

Ocosta stats (25-13, 15-25, 23-25, 25-16, 15-6)
Brooklynne Boesel: 18 digs, 18 assists, 16 kills, 18/18 serving, 1 ace
Anah Wulf: 12/14 serving, 8 digs, 2 kills
Sammi Emigh: 28/31 serving, 5 aces, 4 digs, 3 kills, 1 block
Karste Wright: 12/14 serving, 6 aces, 2 digs, 12 assists, 14 kills, 4 blocks
Elizabeth Stam: 16/17 serving, 1 ace, 13 digs, 5 kills, 2 blocks
Karina Martinez: 8/9 serving, 3 aces, 9 digs
Emerson Webster: 2 digs, 1 assist

The win advanced Brewster into the quarterfinal round where they met eventual state champion La Conner who shut out Manson, 3-0 in the opening round. Brewster got off to a good start with a 25-17 win against the Lady Braves who came to Yakima as the undefeated champs in the 1B/2B Northwest League. La Conner collected itself in the second game and won down the stretch, 16-25, 14-25, and 17-25, to drop the Lady Bears into Friday’s consolation round.

“Playing LaConner in the second round was tough because clearly they are a state championship team,” said coach Marcy Boesel. “That being said, if you want to be the best you have to beat the best. If we hadn't met them, I don't know if we would have learned what we needed to learn about competing to be able to bring home the fifth-place trophy on Friday.”

LaConner stats (25-17, 16-25, 14-25, 17-25)
B. Boesel: 14/15 serving, 1 ace, 11 digs, 25 assists, 14 kills.
Wulf: 12/16 serving, 1 ace, 7 digs, 2 kills.
Emigh: 9/12 serving, 2 digs, 2 assists, 4 kills, 2 blocks.
Wright: 10/12 serving, 1 ace, 5 digs, 14 assists, 1 kill.
Stam: 7/9 serving, 1 ace, 8 digs, 1 assist, 4 kills.
Martinez: 8/9 serving, 18 digs.

“After our loss against LaConner we had a very honest talk about competing and what it means to be a competitive athlete,” said Boesel. “They had a successful, undefeated season as league champs. But that doesn't mean much when you are at a state tournament.”

On Friday morning, Nov. 9, Brewster met Toutle Lake who lost the best of five to Tri-Cities Prep in the quarterfinals.  In another five-game nail-biter, the Lady Ducks opened with a 19-25 win over Brewster but dropped the second game to the Lady Bears, 25-23. Toutle Lake recovered to win game three, 18-25, but could not muster points to close the door. Brewster took games four and five, 25-19, and 15-13, to enter the trophy round later that morning.

Toutle Lake stats (19-25, 25-23, 18-25, 25-19, 15-13)
B. Boesel: 20/20 serving, 4 aces, 23 digs, 26 assists, 23 kills, 1 block.
Wulf: 11/14 serving, 2 aces, 15 digs, 2 blocks.
Emigh: 17/17 serving, 7 digs, 8 kills, 3 blocks.
Wright: 14/16 serving, 2 aces, 12 digs, 20 assists, 18 kills, 3 blocks.
Stam: 20/20 serving, 1 ace, 26 digs, 2 kills.
Martinez: 15/16 serving, 1 ace, 26 digs, 3 assists.
Webster: 1 dig.
Joanna Espinoza: 2 digs.
Standing between Brewster and fifth place was Kalama. The Chinooks came to the SunDome as the undefeated league champs in the 2B Central but lost to Mossyrock in the quarterfinals. With hardware in their sights, the Lady Bears polished off Kalama in three, 25-17, 25-20, and 15-10, to finish fifth.
“Getting outside of our district to play other teams is a really important opportunity for our girls because it opens their mind to new things,” said Boesel. “Whoever shows up and plays best in that moment wins, and that is a lot of how life is, too.”

Kalama stats (25-17, 25-20, 25-17)
B. Boesel: 17/18 serving, 3 aces, 12 digs, 18 assists, 14 kills, 1 block.
Wulf: 12/13 serving, 1 ace, 4 digs, 1 kill.
Emigh: 15/15 serving, 3 assists, 10 digs, 3 kills, 4 blocks.
Wright: 12/12 serving, 5 digs, 13 assists, 11 kills, 1 block.
Stam: 9/9 serving, 13 digs, 4 kills, 3 blocks.
Martinez: 5/5 serving, 11 digs, 2 assists.
The Lady Bears will lose a key senior player, Elizabeth Stam, to graduation next year but will have a strong returning group of juniors and sophomores next season.