After losing to the Camas Papermakers in three sets earlier in the season, the Prairie Falcons volleyball squad brought the intensity to the rematch on Tuesday, Oct. 29, but lost 3-1.
The Falcons recorded a 25-20 first-set win, which was the biggest spread in the four sets played on the night.
In the second set, tied at 26, a Prairie serve hit the floor but was called out despite video showing the ball landing well within the court’s perimeter. The Falcons lost set two, 28-26.
After set two, the Papermakers and Falcons battled it out in set three and four, but Prairie couldn’t find the lead at the end of either, notching the quality loss.
“I’m thankful that we got to play Camas twice,” Falcons head coach Jen Palmer said. “... I’m really happy that we got to experience going up against a team that is just big, huge offensively, huge defensively, and we were able to strategize a bit and prepare and practice, and they executed really well in this match, and I’m really proud of the way they performed.”
Palmer believes her squad has progressed tremendously since the beginning of the season and the team’s first serve.
“I’m having the time of my life coaching them every single day,” Palmer said. “They step into the gym ready to learn more to achieve something greater or work on something specific that we haven’t maybe seen yet, but we know we’re going to face in the future. They’re just getting after it. They work hard. Chemistry is great, respect, I mean, just all of it is there, and I was excited to see how it all came together tonight against an opponent like that.”
After rolling through the first six 3A Greater St. Helens League matches without dropping a single set, the dominant Falcons have their eyes on the postseason but focus on taking things one day at a time, Palmer said.
“I’m just thinking about the next game. The girls are locked in on the next opponent,” she said, adding they want to play at the same caliber as they did against the Papermakers. “So every time we step on the court, we want to have that be Prairie volleyball, and we’re excited to see how we match up in the postseason.”
Following the Oct. 29 loss, the Falcons swept the Heritage Timberwolves and faced off against the Mountain View Thunder on Tuesday, Nov. 5, but results were unavailable at press time. The Falcons close off the season with a home match against Evergreen High School on Thursday, Nov. 7.
Heading into this week’s regular season conclusion, Palmer is looking to fine tune the lineup as the Falcon squad has faced many injuries this season.
“We were down five players at one time,” Palmer said. “So I don’t know that we’ve had the same lineup twice. We’ve pulled two kids up from JV (Yana Tkachenko and Lexi Whedon), and they played phenomenal. So I think we’re just excited to get in the gym and have those kids mix in a bit more and practice the lineups with people next to each other and just push every single day to be better, a better Prairie volleyball team than we were the night before.”
The next step for the Falcons is bi-districts. The District 3/4 volleyball tournament kicks off on Nov. 15 with both Foss and Mount Tahoma high schools hosting the tournament in Tacoma. Prairie will most likely land the GSHL no. 1 seed, providing the Falcons with a preferred matchup to start the tournament. Once the regular season concludes, tournament seeding information will be available at wpanetwork.com/wiaa/brackets/tournament.php and inputting District 4, Volleyball, Class 3A.
