It’s a close volleyball community. With Capital, Olympia heading to state tournament, a good one, too

There have been 62 instances since the turn of the century when a high school volleyball team from Thurston County has reached the state tournament in its classification.

Five times, teams from Thurston County have raised a championship trophy.

Capital, the defending 3A state champion, and Olympia, which won the second of 40-year coach Laurie Creighton’s two 4A titles in 2011, continue the tradition this weekend when both travel to the Yakima Valley SunDome for their respective tournaments.

Olympia (12-9) bounced back from a sixth-place finish in the 4A SPSL to take the second seed out of the 4A West Central/Southwest bidistrict tournament. The Bears open their tournament against University (12-4) at 9:45 a.m. on Friday.

Capital (17-0), the undefeated 3A South Sound Conference and 3A West Central/Southwest bidistrict champion for the second consecutive season, meets Seattle Prep (17-6) in the first round of its tournament at 11:45 a.m. on Friday.

Thurston County’s strength in volleyball extends back before the recent years when Tumwater won three 2A championships under Tana Otton, who has since retired, and 10 different schools, from Northwest Christian of Lacey in 2B up to Olympia in 4A have contributed to that impressive local total of state appearances.

“Thurston County in general has always had really strong volleyball,” said Capital coach Katie Turcotte, who played on a state runner-up team at Capital in 1994, and coached for nine years on Creighton’s staff. “We have an exceptional talent pool and a lot of different club programs.”

In this case, familiarity brings respect.

“Everyone in the area who plays volleyball knows each other,” said Capital junior Maddie Matthews, who started playing for the Capital Ice club team at age 9, but recently switched to the Olympia Reign team organized by teammate Devyn Oestreich’s dad.

“So, we want to beat our friends, and we’re always pushing each other to be the best we can be.”

“We grow up doing camps together,” Olympia senior Camryn Wilson said. “When I think of volleyball in this area, I think of being really little, and seeing a lot of the same people ever since then.”

Said Creighton: “We’ve always been ahead of other areas in the state in opportunities for kids to play. Now, we’re seeing a lot of girls playing doubles, whether on the beach or the grass.”

Olympia’s Avi and Aris Vetter are a successful sister act on the beach during the high school offseason, as are Capital junior Maia Nichols — who verbally committed to Arizona State as a beach player after she was named the 3A state player of the year in 2017 — and her sister Maddie.

“There’s a mental toughness you have to possess to be a beach player,” Creighton said. “There’s only two of you, stepping into a situation where all the skills are required. They get so many touches on the ball, that exponentially gives you more opportunities to improve.”

When it comes to Capital and Olympia, the two programs are connected, though, like football abandoning its traditional Spaghetti Bowl, they no longer play during the high school season, settling for occasional matchups at summer camps and preseason jamborees.

The two schools’ players and coaches do host a summer camp together. Turcotte, though a Capital grad, spent nine years as C-team and later junior varsity coach on Creighton’s staff.

“Laurie taught me there are no small things. Everything is important — how we behave, what you’re doing in practice,” Turcotte said. “She’s an exceptional teacher in all of those small things. I learned and grew from working with and watching her. It’s an integral part of how I coach myself.”

Creighton was glad to see Turcotte take over at Capital.

“Katie has a passion for working with kids, and she loves the game of volleyball,” Creighton said. “As sad as I was to lose her, I was happy to see her get the chance to take her own program to a high level.”

This season, both Olympia and Capital reached a high level, but took different paths.

The Cougars didn’t lose a dual match and cruised to their bidistrict title. Olympia started out slow in the 4A SPSL, then came on strong in the postseason, despite losing Avi Vetter to a sprained ankle.

Turcotte went into the season knowing Capital would have expectations of repeating, but thought the Cougars turned the pressure to their advantage.

“We knew that people wanted to beat us so that raised our level of play,” she said. “Last year we felt we were the underdogs. A lot of people didn’t have their eye on us. Now we know people know who we are and that makes us push ourselves even harder in practice.”

“It’s made us more competitive,” said Oestreich, a sophomore outside hitter whose kill ended the 2017 state championship match against Mercer Island. “What we accomplished last year shows us what our standards are now. We can push ourselves to be our best because we know we can do it.”

Olympia, which did not make it to districts a year ago, took some time to find its stride.

“We set goals at the beginning of the season. We always had that mindset of we want to be better than last year, but we didn’t hit our stride until the postseason,” Olympia outside hitter Bea Asomaning said.

Something the Bears overheard after beating Tahoma, 3-1, in the second match at districts, sparked their mindset going forward. They heard some the Tahoma parents suggest that must be the best the Bears had played.

“We want to make that our standard, make that our normal thing,” Wilson said.

“We have a lot of seniors. We realize it’s our last season and we want to make the best of our last year,” Olympia’s Elise Matheson said.

Olympia missed out on state last season. Capital will have to adjust to a change in venue from the Toyota Center in Kennewick to the SunDome. But, both teams are eager for the tournament to begin.

Seeing the excitement of her players going into state after their slow start is one of the things Creighton says keeps her coaching the Bears after four decades.

“It’s great to see kids finally realize their dreams and finally get to a level of performance they’ve been working for,” she said. “They could have easily have given up after being 1-3 to start league.

“Watching them keep fighting and doing something with the rest of their season is very satisfying.”

This story was originally published November 15, 2018 at 9:15 AM.