LACEY — The Timberline Blazers’ dream season is headed to its next stage.
Now, it’s time for them to dream with their eyes wide open.
Timberline wrapped up a perfect 16-0 regular season with a 25-15, 25-9, 25-11, sweep at River Ridge on Thursday, Nov. 5 in a game where most of the varsity roster saw extended playing time in different roles.
In a regular season in which the Blazers only lost three out of their 51 sets, they’ve had to challenge themselves throughout most of the campaign. Their challenge in their regular season finale against River Ridge was to rely on hitters other than Kinley Smith and Miya Jackson.
Timberline got pretty creative in that effort. Kinley Zimmerman, Lilly Grant and Joyce Izuagbe led the charge, while senior libero Jovie Lind and senior defensive specialist Islee Rebelez also earned some whacks from the back row.
“Tonight, you could see that we’ve got a pretty dynamic team. Our challenge was to not really set Kinley Smith. We wanted to see other people be an offensive threat,” Timberline head coach Matt Monnastes said. “We’re gonna need it going into the postseason. We can’t get Kinley and Miya everything. We need other people to get kills. To win the whole thing, we’ll need that.”
It was a whole lot of Grant in the first set terrorizing River Ridge hitters at the net and finding hardwood with her own attacks. But after the Hawks quickly took a timeout following a 4-1 spurt by Timberline, a fairly even stretch between both teams ensued.
Aspen Lamar and Nancy Ritter helped the Hawks match a couple of runs by Timberline, but the relentless Blazers eventually pulled away with a final score of 25-15 behind four kills in the opening set from Zimmerman, three from Grant and three from Smith.
River Ridge head coach Arianna Jacobson was impressed with how her team responded after the timeout and put contagious energy and hustle on the court in the first set. The Hawks had to shake off some emotions after pregame senior night festivities, but they settled in and forced some long rallies against the Blazers.
“They really rose up to and appreciated how many people were here to watch us. They fed off the energy from the crowd. We had so much energy,” Jacobson said. “When we started the match, we said, ‘Let’s get little wins,’ and we did. We got a lot of little wins within the set.”
Timberline steamrolled to an 8-0 start in set two behind more efficient offense from Zimmerman and Grant, along with a kill from Lind. The Blazers’ lead swelled to 16-3, and by that point, Lind was being fed plenty of looks from an outside hitter spot. With every swing, her smile grew wider as she watched the ball rip toward the Hawks defense, which defended her shots well.
Rebelez also took swings from the back row. It was a new experience for the senior who used to play setter in club ball before swapping to defense her sophomore year. She’s been a stellar defender for Timberline, fitting right into a team culture that forbids balls from hitting the court.
“That was really fun. I’m not a hitter at all,” Rebelez said. “It was fun to be able to try different things. I used to set during club ball. It’s really cool to be able to do a different position. I look up to Jovie a lot. She guides me on defense and where to go.”
A block by Izuagbe was the finishing point on a 25-9 set two rout for the Blazers. Timberline started set three with a 5-1 run, and after River Ridge cut down the deficit to two, the Blazers responded with an 11-2 run and finished the 25-11 win with four straight points.
Timberline’s challenge of keeping sets away from Smith worked and didn’t work at the same time. She still led the Blazers with 11 kills, but they were able to get Zimmerman nine kills and Grant eight kills. Lind even added four kills from her libero spot, and Izuagbe tallied four with five blocks.
Zimmerman, a sophomore, continues to flash her potential on an ambitious senior-heavy team and earn trust from her coaches and teammates. She’s latched onto her senior teammates and has been a sponge in her pursuit to help the Blazers reach their goals.
“They’re like moms to me,” Zimmerman said of the seniors. “To have their mentorship and support throughout the season and through practice is really cool. It means a lot because they’ve invested in me.”
As the Blazers have challenged themselves throughout the season and sought younger players to step up, the rise of Zimmerman has been exactly what they’re looking for. Monnastes understands that much of the attention from opponents in the postseason will swarm Smith and Jackson, but Zimmerman may be a secret weapon for them.
“To me, she’s gonna be one of our next big key players for us moving forward. It’s cool to watch her step out and be a dominant force tonight,” Monnastes said of Zimmerman. “We’re gonna need her at state.”
River Ridge celebrated six seniors within the program in its season finale: Sofia Lie, Nancy Ritter, Kristina Stupina, Maya Caro, Justina Middleton and Maryon Vega Ortiz.
“I really think that they’re going to leave a mark on this program and be remembered around here. I’m very proud of them,” Jacobson said.
River Ridge finishes the regular season with a 2-16 record and a 1-10 mark in the Puget Sound League in Jacobson’s first season leading the program. While the 15-game losing streak to close out the season was far from the plan, Jacobson saw growth from her team in undoubtedly the toughest league in Class 3A.
“Coming in, we wanted to do better than we did last year, and we accomplished that. We had more wins and we had more set wins,” she said. “The focus was all about learning. Maybe the win-loss ratio doesn’t reflect complete success, but I do feel like there’s been a lot of huge successes moving forward to rebuilding this program.”
Next up for Timberline (16-0, 11-0 PSL) is the Class 3A District 3 Tournament, in which it will certainly be a top-four seed and clinch a first-round bye. A win in the quarterfinals would seal a state bid, and three wins without a loss in districts would secure the Blazers’ first district title since 2013.
“This year, we have that fire. We really want to go out with a bang,” Rebelez said. “Since we have such a big senior class and we’ve been playing together for so long, we really want to dominate and take it all the way.”
