Undefeated 4A state champs: Curtis volleyball players reflect on perfect season
Lake Stevens was giving the undefeated Curtis High School volleyball team everything it could handle in the Class 4A state tournament semifinals last Saturday in Yakima.
The game went to a decisive fifth set. Curtis was clinging to a small lead. The players on the bench were holding hands, linking arms, sweating, praying.
Then the Vikings won, 17-15, advancing to the 4A state championship game later that day.
“Everyone started tearing up,” sophomore middle hitter Kayla Baker said on Tuesday at Curtis High School, back in University Place.
“We just believed,” added sophomore setter Kate Harris.
Curtis went on to beat Kennedy Catholic in the state championship game, 3-0, completing a perfect 27-0 season. In the 2024 season: league champs in the 4A South Puget Sound League, 4A District 3/4 champions, 4A state champions. It doesn’t get better than that.
“It really hasn’t sunk in right now, I feel like,” sophomore middle hitter Mia Nelson said on Tuesday. “I feel like it’s just, ‘Dang, we’re state champs.’”
Curtis coach Taylor Bautista told The News Tribune prior to the state tournament that she wanted to see her team be mentally strong, knowing the Vikings would be tested at some point. Consider that test passed with flying colors against Lake Stevens.
“That’s what won us the game — our energy,” Baker said. “One of our goals was to finish. I think that’s what we did this year. There were moments on the court where it did get chaotic, but we know each other and all had a strong connection. We had to settle down and play for each other.”
Kennedy Catholic knocked off No. 2 seeded Wenatchee in the other semifinal game. Curtis had already beaten Kennedy Catholic this season, a week earlier in the bidistrict championship game, so it was a familiar rematch for the state championship. It proved less dramatic than the semifinal game against Lake Stevens.
“We played lights out,” Harris said.
After the game, the team grabbed some dinner at a local Mod Pizza and loaded into the bus, a three-hour drive home ahead of the team. The bus lights turned off and within minutes, most of the players were asleep, mentally and physically exhausted from the two-day tournament.
“I’m just proud,” Nelson said. “I’m still shocked.”
“We worked hard in practice to earn that,” Harris added. “We all just deserved it.”
