Friday, March 29, 2024

Lady Bears rout Raiders for CW2B volleyball championship

On to state - play Thurs., Nov. 14 at 1:30 p.m.

Posted

BREWSTER – The league-leading Lady Bears varsity volleyball team lost only two of 39 sets to Central Washington 2B league opponents during regular and post-season play on the road to clinch the CW2B league championship trophy with a 3-1 match win over Lake Roosevelt on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

The third-ranked Lady Raiders (6-1) eliminated No. 6 Tonasket (3-4), and surprised second-ranked Liberty Bell, 3-0, to advance to the championship round against Brewster. In their only other meeting during the regular season, the Lady Bears defeated Lake Roosevelt, 3-0, on Oct. 17.

Lake Roosevelt made the Lady Bears work for their hardware with an opening set 25-22 to put Brewster on notice that there was another team in the house to take seriously. The Lady Bears rose to the occasion and won set two by the largest margin of the series, 25-8 after falling behind 3-1 early in the contest.

Set three was almost a point-by-point tradeoff with ties at 1-1, 2 apiece, 4-all, 5-5 and the final tie at 17-17. The Lady Raiders, with the help of a vocal cheering section, leading at most stops until Brewster took the reins at 18-17 and powered through to the 25-20 win.

The third-set loss seemed to take some of the fire out of Lake Roosevelt with its back against the wall as the Lady Bears took an early 4-0 lead in the fourth set. The Lady Raiders let the gap grow to 15-3 before they started to rally. However, a 12-point deficit against an opponent that has been as consistent as the Lady Bears have been all season is a formidable challenge and one the Lady Raiders did not have the reserves to reverse. Brewster kept on the pressure and powered to a 25-11 final.

The win guaranteed the Lady Bears a berth at state as they travelled to Wenatchee to take on Tri-Cities Prep in a District 5/6 glue crossover match on Thursday evening, Nov. 7. The Lady Cougars came to the match with a second-place ranking and 7-1 record in the 10-team Eastern Washington Athletic Conference. All three sets were close between two well-matched teams, but Tri-Cities put together a string of three strong performances to edge the Lady Bears, 20-25, 23.25, and 18-25.

The Lady Bears will play Colfax at 1:30 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 14, in the opening round of state competition at the Yakima SunDome. The only other CW2B team to make it into state play is Lake Roosevelt who will face Kalama.

Brewster placed sixth at state in 2017 and fifth last year.

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