Puyallup completes perfect 27-0 regular season: ‘We’re back for more’
When Allison Schumacher arrives daily at Puyallup High School for volleyball practice, most players have beaten her there, laughing in the hallways awaiting their head coach.
Bus rides to and from road contests are much the same, filled with noisy chatter among best friends. In two seasons at the helm of the program, Schumacher hasn’t found a closer group.
Their off-the-court chemistry not only translates to on-the-court success – Schumacher says it’s the reason Puyallup finished the regular season a mind-boggling 27-0.
That’s right: the Vikings are still undefeated heading into postseason play. All but four of those wins were shutouts.
In the first 26 victories, Puyallup took 69 sets and dropped only three.
How does that happen?
“We’re really hungry this season,” Schumacher said on Monday. “We’re just taking it one day at a time.”
Many of Puyallup’s victories were dominant, lopsided, and convincing. But Tuesday’s win over league-rival Graham-Kapowsin, which cemented the Vikings’ perfect slate, was anything but.
Schumacher’s squad fell behind quickly, dropping the opening pair of sets. But they rallied for the last three, refusing to lose on senior night in their home gym.
Their undefeated season lives into the postseason.
Unsurprisingly, they sit atop the state volleyball rankings. There’s an involuntary target on Puyallup’s back, and they know it.
The Vikings missed the state tournament in 2021, cutting short the junior season of TNT All-Area libero Sophia Sheppard. Now back for a final year, she’s ready to prove Puyallup’s unblemished record is no fluke.
“We work really hard in practice, and in games, we make sure that we all help each other,” she said Monday, sporting a team-best 3.5 digs per set. “That’s why I think we’re 26-0,” she added, before Puyallup had capped the season with Tuesday’s comeback win.
“We play as a team. We don’t play separately.”
Alongside Sheppard stood Ivy Vindivich, a senior middle blocker whose 224 kills rank 14th in all of Washington state. She pointed to Puyallup’s success against unfamiliar non-league opponents. New faces never slowed down the Vikings – of 13 out-of-league contests, Puyallup lost only one set to Kennedy Catholic in a 2-1 victory last Sept. 17.
The Vikings first upset 2A powerhouse Ridgefield in a 2-0 shutout on Sept. 17, a team that beat Puyallup twice last year. Three days later, they blanked 4A-contender Curtis on Sept. 20, 3-0.
On Oct. 8, Puyallup beat Ridgefield again in a neutral tournament, 2-0. And four days after, they beat Curtis again in a road meeting, 3-1.
“Us beating all of these teams that we lost to last year… it’s not revenge, but showing that we’re back for more,” Sheppard said. “We are ten times more energetic, excited. We’re ready to dominate.”
Vindivich added: “We want it more.”
Always good competition, Schumacher deemed Curtis “a good test.” Now having swept them in regular-season play – an admittedly-high bar – Puyallup feels it can beat anyone.
There’s no shortage of playmakers. Junior middle blocker Danielle Brown’s .425 hitting percentage bests the 4A classification and ranks fourth in the state. Sheppard’s younger sister, Reese, leads the state with 686 assists as a sophomore setter.
Reese was the team’s leading setter as a freshman, described by her older sister as an instantaneous vocal leader. When Reese arrived for her first season in 2021, Schumacher thought she acted like a senior.
“Everyone’s more mature, and everyone’s gotten closer to each other,” Sophia said. “(Reese’s) improvement from last year really set us up for having the highest success possible.”
An ensuing postseason run marks the final time Sophia and Reese will share a high school volleyball court. And it’s the last chance for Puyallup’s four seniors to make a run at the state title, inarguably in elite playoff positioning.
When Puyallup first gathered for preseason practice, Schumacher asked her players to individually jot down both personal and team-wide goals for the current season. All responses to the latter matched: to win a state title.
Sheppard and Vindivich’s only state-tournament experience came in 2019 as freshmen, when Puyallup exited in the quarterfinals. A year later, Puyallup finished a perfect 15-0 and won the league title, though the coronavirus pandemic erased postseason competition. Last year’s early exit only fuels the team’s desire to return.
“It’s something I hear them talking about non-stop,” said Puyallup’s head coach. “‘I want to get back (to state),’’ she’d hear them repeat, over and over. “‘I want to play in the state tournament before I leave here.’ It’s something they all desire.”
Their team-adopted philosophy is “family over everything,” considered the driving force of their undefeated run.
The postseason comes next.
“Last year, we weren’t as close, and we didn’t do as much team bonding. On the court, there was just so much tension,” Sheppard said. “I feel like we’re way closer this year. We talk to each other a lot more.
“You can tell everyone likes each other, and is having fun.”
