Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Tigers playing for fifth place at SunDome
Odessa senior Melloney Deife digs out a Wilbur-Creston kill attempt in the Tigers' 3-2 win over the Wildcats during the District 7 1B Tournament Saturday, Nov. 4
ODESSA - One week ago, the Tigers volleyball team was a .500 team hoping to pull off a couple upsets in the District 7 1B Tournament. And today, Thursday, Nov. 9, Odessa is at the Yakima SunDome trying to take home a fifth-place state trophy.
The mini-Cinderella run began Thursday, Nov. 2 when Odessa topped Inchelium 3-2 (25-10, 18-25, 25-17, 21-25, 15-9) in the first round of Districts. The Tigers were stuffed by Almira/Coulee-Hartline later that day 1-3 (18-25, 25-27, 25-22, 18-25) to drop to a loser-out match.
That match was against the rival Wilbur-Creston Wildcats, with the winner securing a state bid and the loser's season ending.
The Wildcats started quickly, taking an 8-4 lead in the first set. The lead was extended to 17-11 as Odessa exhausted its two set timeouts.
Odessa seemed to be headed for a deficit after the lead was 23-19, but the Tigers rallied to win an exciting first set 28-26 as Melloney Deife secured the game with a kill.
The Tigers rode the momentum to a 7-3 second set lead, but the Wildcats rebounded to take an 11-9 lead. That lead grew to 14-10 before Odessa cut it to 16-14 before forcing a 19-19 tie, but W-C went on a 6-1 run to close the set with a 25-20 victory.
The Wildcats built a 14-9 lead in the third set, which Odessa again trimmed to 16-14. It was mostly all W-C from there, as the Wildcats took the third set 25-19 to take a 2-1 match lead.
Odessa was a set loss away from its season ending.
Then, seniors Deife and Hayden Schuh took over.
Assists from Deife and kills by Schuh led Odessa to dominate the fourth set 25-15 as the Tigers controlled the tying set throughout. That forced a decisive fifth set, where Odessa remained in control before securing a 15-9 win and a state tournament berth.
"We worked so hard, and we were like, 'we're not ending our senior season here,'" Schuh said. "Especially not against Wilbur."
After celebrating, Odessa had another match to play. And the Tigers defeated Mary Walker 3-2 (23-25, 25-20, 25-21, 13-25, 18-16) to win the District 7 1B third place game and secure the No. 9 seed at state.
At the Sundome Wednesday, Nov. 8, Odessa topped Orcas Island in the first round 3-0 before getting swept by two-time defending champion Oakesdale in the state quarterfinals.
The Tigers were set to rematch Mary Walker to qualify for the fifth/sixth place match at 10 a.m. Thursday, Nov. 9 after the newspaper went to press.
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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