North Thurston’s Addy Conner is TNT’s All-Area volleyball Player of the Year
None of it felt real at first.
Not until Addy Conner hugged her dad.
What took time to register wasn’t the win itself — but what it meant for a North Thurston program its star player had helped redefine.
On the night of Nov. 22, Conner and the Rams stepped onto the court inside the Yakima Valley SunDome and authored history. No. 1 North Thurston swept No. 2 Mount Spokane in the 3A championship match (25-21, 25-21, 25-20), an emphatic statement of redemption for last year’s runners-up. Teammates piled near the net, posed for photos and celebrated at the local Miner’s Drive-In Restaurant with the first-place trophy in hand. Through it all, Conner’s sideline embrace with her father and assistant coach, Mike, made the moment hit home.
“I think that made it hit a little harder,” Conner said Monday, smiling.
The 6-foot-2 outside hitter powered the Rams to the mountaintop. She delivered a tournament-high 83 kills in four wins, capturing the first state title in any girls sport in North Thurston history. It was only fitting to organize a schoolwide, celebratory assembly on campus. That’s when the realization struck everyone else.
For a player that never asked for the spotlight, Conner found it. North Thurston’s putaway hitter totaled 534 kills (6.4/set) this fall, adding 190 digs, 28 blocks and 24 aces. She was a perpetual mismatch even for the area’s best, as every bit clutch as she was consistent.
Conner is The News Tribune’s 2025 All-Area volleyball Player of the Year.
“It’s really cool,” Conner told The News Tribune. “One of my best friends last year [Avery Cukjati, Curtis] was named All-Area Player of the Year, and I thought it was so cool. I play beach (volleyball) with her all the time. I thought it was really cool that she got to be named that, and I feel honored that I get to as well.”
Early on, some urged Conner to play basketball because of her height. It just wasn’t for her. Volleyball was.
By elementary school, she was attending youth camps and playing at her local YMCA. In fifth grade, Conner joined her first club team. North Thurston head coach Jackie Meyer witnessed all of it, friends with the family since their college days.
“It goes fast,” Meyer laughed. “It goes really fast.”
The raw talent was always there, but what Meyer saw in four years as Conner’s head coach was the blossoming of a shy, quiet player into the natural leader North Thurston needed. She embraced pressure with grace, guiding the Rams to a place they had never been before.
The senior’s game did the talking.
“It becomes the responsibility of the other teams to shut her down, and that’s hard when you’re as tall as she is with the range that she has,” Meyer said. “Being able to place the ball in certain spots and hit that 10-foot line or hit the cut shot… There’s not a lot of players that can do that.
“There are a lot of players that might be able to hit hard, but her ability to be able to place the ball in certain spots is super strategic. It messes with other defenses.”
Conner signed with Cal Poly’s beach volleyball program last month, part of a whirlwind finish to 2025 — a Division-I commitment, state championship and TNT All-Area Player of the Year nod all in one.
“She’s not going to be the person to go around and brag about it, either,” Meyer said, “but it’s a perfect ending to a Cinderella four years.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
