Prep News & Notes: Ocosta volleyball keeps winning

Published 6:00 pm Tuesday, September 25, 2018

In this edition of our Prep News & Notes coverage, we take a look at Ocosta volleyball’s impressive start to the season, an incredible statistical anomoly and look inside a top-heavy 1A Evergreen football league.

Ocosta volleyball keeps on winning

Nearing the halfway point of the season, the Ocosta Wildcats are proving to be the team to beat in a competitive 2B Pacific league this season.

Through its first five scheduled games and two tournaments, the Wildcats are 5-0, took third in the Adna Tournament on Sept. 15 and at last Saturday’s Raymond Tournament, took first place.

A look into the numbers shows why. Ocosta is a dynamic team — they have multiple big hitters, an efficient and consistent service game, and an intimidating defense.

Ocosta is averaging 10.1 kills per set and a 39.1 kill percentage. They hold a sparkling 93.7 service percentage led by junior Emily Snider, who is perfect in 72 service attempts. And Ocosta averages nearly five blocks per set as a team.

Snider has been a mark of stability for Ocosta this season. She has 90 assists thus far in 2018, an average of five assists per set, and has only four ball-handling errors in 232 attempts.

With Snider helping to shore up the backcourt, the ball usually finds one of multiple Wildcats that can bury kills and put points on the board. Senior Kaylee Barnum has been the main sharpshooter for Ocosta, totalling 68 kills for a 3.8 kill-per-set rate. Barnum is joined by junior Layne Martin (50 kills) and sophomore Kylee Poirier (36 kills) as Wildcats with at least 30 kills on the season.

After finishing third in pool play on Saturday, Ocosta upended league-rivals South Bend and Willapa Valley to win the Raymond Tournament, adding another feather in the cap of what is shaping up to be a fine season for the Wildcats.

Did you say 50 assists?

If you didn’t catch this little tidbit that was reported in an online article last Wednesday we’ll repeat it for you because it’s that much of an anomaly.

In North Beach’s straight-set volleyball win over Taholah on Tuesday, Sept, 18, Hyaks setter Mady Eang, a freshman, recorded an incredible 50 assists.

Typically in high school volleyball, it would take a team’s top setter two games to reach that mark, and those would likely have to be four- or five-set matches.

To tally 50 assists in a five-set match would be an tremendous accomplishment. To do it in straight-sets, is downright incredible.

Hyaks head coach Sharayah Miller acknowledged she has a special athlete in Eang.

“I’m so excited to have her,” Miller said the night of game. “She’s a force to be reckoned with.”

A top-heavy league

In asking around if there was ever a season in which Elma, Hoquiam and Montesano football teams all began the season with perfect 4-0 records, we keep getting the same answer: “Not in recent memory.”

With all three teams winning again last Friday, the 1A Evergreen league schedule is shaping up to be a memorable one by the time the playoffs arrive.

Simply put, the league is stacked right now. Elma, Monte and Hoquiam are a combined 12-0. Throw in a Forks team that is 3-1 and you have the top four teams in a five-team league with a combined 15-1 record.

Tenino seems to be the only ‘easy’ league opponent this season as they are off to an 0-4 start, which is good news for Hoquiam as the Grizzlies host the Beavers on Friday. Hoquiam is 15-2 all time against Tenino, including a 9-0 record at Olympic Stadium.

The last time the Grizzlies were 4-0 was in 2015, where they won 10 straight games until a loss to King’s Way Christian in the 1A state quarterfinals ended their season.

Elma, which faces a winless RA Long team on Thursday, last went 4-0 in 1998. In that season, the Eagles went 8-0 en route to an overall 11-2 record and a loss in the state championship game to Othello.

As for Montesano, you don’t have to look far to find the last time it went 4-0, just last season the Bulldogs extended an undefeated streak to 11-0 before losing to Meridian in the state quarterfinals.

If all goes according to plan, and what’s on paper, Elma and Hoquiam should have little problem extending their records to 5-0 after this week.

Monte, ranked No. 2 most recent AP 1A football poll, will be favored against a Forks team that boasts size on the lines and a propensity to blow teams out this season. But the Bulldogs have owned the Spartans over the past decade-plus, and if the first four games of this season is any indication, there is no evidence that the machine that is Monte football has come back to the pack. It’s more like the pack is stepping up to meet Monte at its own level.

There’s a good chance that we’ll be talking about Elma, Hoquiam and Monte being 5-0 come next week.