Prep volleyball: Tumwater rallies for fifth place with 5-set win over Archbishop Murphy

Over the years, many a player has made a big play in a team’s final game of the state tournament. Many a coach has been inspired to make a tactical change that turned the tide.

Neither of those sparked the Tumwater High School volleyball team in its 2A state fifth-place game in Saint Martin’s University’s Marcus Pavilion on Saturday.

Down 13-8 to Archbishop Murphy in the fourth set and losing two sets to one, T-Birds coach Tana Otton called timeout because that’s what coaches do in those situations — but beyond that wasn’t sure what to do.

“Anything I could have said to them, I’d already said to them,” Otton said. “So I turned to our manager, who’s been such a big part of our team all year, and told him he had to come up with something motivational.”

Connor Ensign wasn’t shy.

“I told them to think about what memories they wanted to take away from their last game, especially the seniors,” he said. “I knew they didn’t want to be a loss.”

And it wasn’t. The Thunderbirds went on an 8-3 run to tie the set at 16, then won it 25-22 before taking a 15-11 fifth set and the fifth-place trophy.

“All the girls just adore Connor,” said senior hitter Jaeya Reed, who finished the match with 10 kills, 10 digs and served out the final three T-Bird points. “He’s has so much integrity, we said ‘If Connor says so, we’ve got to do it.’ ”

Although Kennedy Croft turned in the second-most kills in Tumwater history with 30, and Maddy Pilon (whose block ended the match) put up 53 assists, the T-Birds — a team that’s beaten both of the 4A finalists Curtis and Emerald Ridge, as well as 3A finalist Columbia River this year — felt out of place in the consolation bracket and needed the extra motivation.

“This was tough for these girls,” Otton said. “They lacked a little inspiration at first.”

Accordingly, Tumwater got off to a slow start, falling behind 6-0 in the first set, and with Murphy’s Megan Ehlebracht and Jaime Cymbaluk doing most of the damage up front, cut the margin to two points later but fell 25-21.

In the second set, Tumwater got off to the hot start, forcing Murphy coach Brandon Jones to call timeout at 5-0, then extending the lead throughout before Brooke Hare finished the 25-11 scoring with a block.

The third featured 10 lead changes, with Tumwater taking its last at 25-24. Cymbaluk broke a 26-26 tie with a dink at the net for the Wildcats and Ehlebracht finished it with a kill to the back corner.

The T-Birds had advanced to the trophy-deciding game earlier by beating White River in three sets, 25-19, 25-22, 25-14.

Croft led Tumwater with 21 kills, 14 digs and two aces while Reed contributed nine kills and seven digs. Cristina Hegarty paced the T-Birds’ defense with 16 digs. Anela Cairns had five kills and three digs.

Burlington-Edison, which rallied to beat Tumwater on Friday, won the 2A championship with a four-set victory over Ellensburg, 21-25, 25-20, 25-12, 25-12. Ridgefield beat Woodland in five sets for third place.

CLASS 1B

Charles Wright places sixth: Not bad for the Tarriers’ first state tournament appearance in school history.

Charles Wright won its first Nisqually League title in school history, made its first state tournament appearance in school history, beat Annie Wright in the first round and finished it all off with a state trophy on Saturday at the Yakima Valley SunDome.

Mindy McGrath has been Charles Wright’s coach for 13 years, though she took last season off to help take care of her mother. She said this year’s group was more dedicated to volleyball than she’s had.

“It feels so great,” McGrath said despite her team losing 3-1 to King’s in the fifth-sixth place match.

“I’ve been here a long time, but this group played on the middle school team and club – we just had more volleyball-minded girls this year.”

Freshman Abbie Jackson led the team in kills with 90 (22.5 per match) in the Tarriers’ four state matches this weekend as Charles Wright bounced back from a quarterfinal loss against Cedar Park Christian on Friday to beat Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls early Saturday, 3-2, and guarantee itself a state trophy.

CLASS 2B

Life Christian places fourth: The Eagles couldn’t duplicate their two wins from Friday, falling in the state semifinals against LaConner before losing to Toutle Lake, 3-1, in the third-fourth place match on Saturday.

Life Christian lost in three sets in the state semifinals. It won the third set, 25-18, in the third-place match against Toutle Lake to pull to within 2-1, but dropped the fourth set, 25-19.

Staff writer TJ Cotterill contributed to this report

This story was originally published November 15, 2015 at 1:04 AM with the headline "Prep volleyball: Tumwater rallies for fifth place with 5-set win over Archbishop Murphy."