TUMWATER — Early in the season, Tumwater coach Kennedy Croft put her team through an early-season gauntlet.
The Thunderbirds lost their first six games, including four against 4A teams, but Croft knew that despite the results, those tests could pay dividends down the line.
Flash forward a month, and it’s safe to say that’s exactly what’s happened.
The Thunderbirds swept Shelton 25-20, 25-23, 25-19 at home, notching their 10th straight win and officially securing the EvCo title and the league’s No. 1 seed for the district tournament.
During this winning streak, eight of the wins have been sweeps, and none of the ten matchups have made it beyond four sets.
“We have definitely grown a lot since then,” Croft said of the early-season slate. “I think for them, looking back at those games, they can kind of see why we played those high-level teams. It kind of prepared them really well going into these (league) matches with confidence, but also looking at the postseason, they know they’ve seen high-level volleyball and they can hang with those teams.”
It was high-level volleyball for most of the night for Tumwater against Shelton, as the Thunderbirds were in control for much of the game.
After winning the first set, the T-Birds did fall behind early in the second set, as Shelton’s block was doing an excellent job getting touches on Tumwater’s hitters.
Croft credited Shelton’s block, noting that it was great despite the Highclimbers not having a ton of height at the net.
“We had to make some adjustments there,” Croft said. “We had to be a little more disciplined and hit high of what we thought the block was looking like.”
The Thunderbirds quickly adjusted, holding off the Highclimbers in Set 2 before taking the third to complete the sweep.
After the game, Tumwater’s five seniors — Kay Kay Malroy, Cosie Iuliano, Naomi Ash, Sydney Wilson, and Addy Palaniuk — got to participate in one “final set” where their family members got to come onto the court and pass them the ball for one final kill on their home court.
With the Thunderbirds hitting the road for their regular season finale and the district tournament being in Woodland, Tuesday’s game was that senior’s classes last in Tumwater.
“They do a really good job of pulling people together and creating that sisterhood and family aspect in our program,” Croft said. “They’ve done such a good job of being leaders.”
Tumwater (10-6, 9-0 2A EvCo) will head to Aberdeen for that regular-season finale on Thursday before heading to Woodland for a district quarterfinal against the GSHL’s No. 4 seed next Thursday, Nov. 5.
“This is the fun part of the season,” Croft said. “It’s what we set goals for and what we work so hard for all year. We’re excited. We know that we can hang with high-level teams, and now we’re just building up the capacity mentality to beat them. I think the girls are excited to challenge themselves in those high-level games, and I’m excited to see them do that.”
