Falcon volleyball veterans eye return trip to state 1A tournament | FALL SPORTS PREVIEW 2014
Published 3:39 pm Friday, September 5, 2014
The sights, sounds and smells of the Yakima SunDome lingered with the Falcon volleyball girls.
Those who were on the team that reached the 1A state tournament last year often recall the experience. They hope that by talking about it, they can give their new teammates a glimpse of why it’s important to them and what they’re working toward.
Nothing short of a return to the state tournament, which was South Whidbey’s first in a decade, will satisfy this year’s squad. Even more than just qualifying for the tournament, this team has aspirations of surpassing the mark of being eliminated on the first day.
“My goal and the whole team’s goal is to go back to state and win at least a game,” said Falcon senior middle hitter Abby Hodson, one of the team’s co-captains. “We’ve been talking about it ever since last year.”
To get there, South Whidbey has to fill several key vacancies from 2013’s senior-laden team, including setter and defensive specialist. The Falcons seem to have their libero established in Sara Bryant and setting duties could be shared between a few players, including senior Katherine Read after missing last year with a leg injury.
From the first day of practice, the team jumped into two of its biggest problems identified during the 2013 state tournament: hitting around blocks and holding serve. Regularly at practice the Falcons do a rotation of serving 50 times and doing 50 transitions at the net from a block to a hit. The idea, said Hodson, is that they’ll be well conditioned for both parts of the game with 500 serves and 500 transitions in by their first match against island rival Coupeville on Sept. 9.
The former in-league rivalry is now a non-league rivalry. Coupeville left the Cascade Conference. Cedar Park Christian joined to keep the league’s ranks at eight schools — four of which are 2A and four are 1A, with Sultan dropping to 1A. 
Only the top two 1A schools will
move on to the District 1 tournament, leaving South Whidbey with a much more challenging road to the playoffs than last year when it only had to outdo either Coupeville or King’s.
The Lady Knights of the King’s School are poised to repeat as the league champions, though South Whidbey’s leaders are equally prepared to take them down for the first time in their varsity careers.
“I honestly think we can beat them, and I really want to, so bad,” Hodson said.
One of South Whidbey volleyball’s hallmarks for the past four years is a penchant for putting itself on the edge of elimination. Through the playoffs last season, South Whidbey had its opportunities to secure a spot at the next round and lost, thus playing in a win-or-go-home game. But they kept winning those, all the way to the Yakima SunDome. That experience will be hard to replicate, Hodson admitted, but she wants to see herself and her teammates find that perseverance and grit from the onset.
“Hopefully this season will get them ready to fight for it to the very last point, which it probably will [take],” she said.
2014 Falcon volleyball schedule
Tuesday, Sept. 9 vs. Coupeville *
Thursday, Sept. 11 vs. Cedar Park Christian *
Tuesday, Sept. 16 vs. Granite Falls *
Thursday, Sept. 18 at Archbishop Murphy
Saturday, Sept. 20 South Whidbey Invite *
Tuesday, Sept. 23 vs. King’s *
Thursday, Sept. 25 at Cedarcrest
Tuesday, Sept. 30 vs. Lakewood *
Thursday, Oct. 2 at Sultan
Tuesday, Oct. 7 at Cedar Park Christian
Thursday, Oct. 19 at Granite Falls
Tuesday, Oct. 14 vs. Archbishop Murphy *
Thursday, Oct. 16 at King’s
Monday, Oct. 20 vs. Cedarcrest *
Wednesday, Oct. 22 at Lakewood
Monday, Oct. 27 vs. Sultan *
All varsity matches begin at 7 p.m.
* Home match
