HS Volleyball: Tumwater Sweeps Black Hills, Improves To 3-0 In League Play

10/9/24

Tumwater 3, Black Hills 0 (25-15, 25-14, 25-21)

(Tumwater, WA) The Black Hills Wolves and Tumwater Thunderbirds were State participants last year, and Black Hills even earned eighth place in last year’s tournament. Both teams aspire to make it there again as they navigate league play. Last year, Black Hills went 10-2 in the EVCO 2A, with their only two losses coming to Tumwater, while the T-Birds were undefeated in league action. Tumwater was coming off two straight wins, while Black Hills was coming off one win last Thursday.

In the first set, Tumwater got off to a fantastic start, going on an 11-2 run to open up the match, forcing Black Hills to call their first timeout. Tumwater had kills from Tove Hugus and an ace from Lalie Betschart. Black Hills responded with a nice block from Lilly Worthen to make it 13-4, as Tumwater still was leading. Later in the set, Black Hills had back-to-back kills from Ella Goheen and Tyler Venable to make it 17-10 with Tumwater still in the lead. The T-Birds got a big block from Brooklyn Bonfield to give Tumwater a 21-12 lead, and later, Hugus had another kill to make it 22-15. Tumwater would get the first set win 25-15.

In the second set, Black Hills got off to a great start, winning the first three points, with two of them being long rallies between the two sides. Chiara Capezio had a kill for the Wolves to make it 4-2, but Tumwater rallied back to tie the second set at five. The teams tied at six and seven before Tumwater pulled ahead with the help of Kay Kay Milroy, who had a kill to make it 10-7 in favor of the T-Birds. Paige Henderson had an ace for Tumwater to make it 14-8 and force Black Hills to call a timeout. Black Hills immediately earned a point when Ella Goheen got a block at the net, but Tumwater bounced back as Chloe Henderson got a point for the T-Birds, and Bailey Broeker had an ace to extend Tumwater’s lead up to 18-10. Tumwater would get an ace from Lalie Betschart before closing out the second set with a 25-14 win.

In the third set, Tumwater would grab a 4-1 lead, with Brooklyn Bonfield earning a kill for the T-Birds. Chiara Capezio would have another kill for Black Hills, but Paige Henderson had back-to-back kills for Tumwater to give them a 7-3 lead. Tyler Venable responded with two kills for Black Hills as she helped pull the Wolves to within two points at 10-8 with Tumwater still leading. Bonfield and Hugus would get consecutive kills for Tumwater as they were part of a 4-0 run to make it 15-10 with Tumwater in the lead, but Black Hills fought back with another block from Ella Goheen at the net to help pull the Black Hills within two points again. Paige and Chloe Henderson each had a kill for Tumwater to help extend their lead to 19-14 as they forced Black Hills to call timeout. Tumwater would get another kill from Tove Hugus and Paige Henderson to get three points away from taking the match, but Tyler Venable had another timely kill for Black Hills. The Wolves made it 22-19 and forced Tumwater to call their first timeout in the match, coming out of the timeout, there was a back-and-forth rally, which saw Tumwater get that point and the next one. With Tumwater looking at match point, Black Hills scored three points in a row before Tumwater closed it out to win the final set 25-21 and get the sweep.

Our elisportsnetwork.com Match MVP went to Tumwater’s Lalie Betschart. There were many plays where Betschart had to scramble to get to the ball or run quite the distance to chase it down and keep the play alive for Tumwater and her effort and hustle all night long was a reason why Tumwater scored some key points the entire match.

With the win, Tumwater improves to 7-2 on the season and 3-0 in EVCO 2A play. The T-Birds take on Centralia on the road on Thursday in their next match. Black Hills drops to 2-6 on the season and 1-2 in EVCO 2A play. Black Hills will face Aberdeen on Thursday at home in another important league matchup.

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Match Highlights

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