HS Volleyball: Adna Sweeps Napavine in Battle of Unbeatens

9/26/23

Adna 3, Napavine 0 (25-23, 25-16, 28-26)

(Adna, WA) League play has begun in the high school volleyball season and two of the very best teams in the Central 2B League met on the court on Tuesday night. Both the Napavine Tigers and Adna Pirates entered the league matchup undefeated with the Tigers coming in at 5-0 and Adna at 4-0. For the Tigers, it had been a battle as three of their five wins went five sets. Meanwhile, the Pirates had rolled to a 4-0 start with all sweeps as they came into Tuesday’s showdown without having lost a set. They would exit the match unscathed but with a fight as Napavine made Adna work for it but Adna would end up with the sweep to move to 5-0.

The first set was back and forth most of the way. Every time it looked like Adna would pull away for a comfortable win, Napavine stormed right back. Danika Hallom and Kendall Humphrey did a fantastic job at the net for the Pirates and Karsyn Freeman added to that attack as the set went on. Some fantastic looking kills would not go for Adna as Emily Kang was unbelievable once again with some very strong digs from the back line. Jessie McCoy went on a strong run at the service line to get Napavine back within striking distance. Adna’s attack was just too relentless as the Pirates built their lead up and fended off the late Napavine run to take the opening set 25-23.

In set number two, again Napavine charged back every time Adna tried to pull away, but again Adna never let Napavine take the lead. Keira O’Neill and Dakota Hamilton really got their games going in that set while Hallom and Freeman along with Gaby Guard and Charissa Schierman playing as the facilitators for Adna. One play stood out that seemed to firmly put the momentum on the side of the Pirates. On a kill attempt by the Tigers, Bailey Chapman came up with a massive block that not only fired her up, but took the teams energy to a whole new level. Adna controlled the rest of the set as the Pirates took another one, 25-16.

We got one doozy of a set in the third on this Tuesday night. Dakota Hamilton began to just takeover the match for Napavine and as she got better and better, so did Keira O’Neill. Jessie McCoy also was phenomenal as Napavine would not go away and made Adna sweat out their consecutive set winning streak. One thing did hurt Napavine and that was their unforced errors. The Tigers couldn’t get out of their own way and against a team like Adna, you can’t give away points. Even despite the struggles from the service line in the third set, Napavine earned themselves a set point opportunity. A big ace by Charissa Schierman would erase that set point and even things up at 24-24. Adna then earned a match point opportunity, but back-to-back points for the Tigers had it set point once again. Adna would respond with two straight points to once again put things at match point. Kendall Humphrey would do the honors and earned the final kill as Adna fought for the third set and came away victorious 28-26 to earn another sweep.

The Better Homes and Garden Takin’ it to the House Play of the Game went to Bailey Chapman of the Adna Pirates. Chapman came up with a big block that sparked the Pirates in the second set just as the Tigers began to seize some momentum. Our Thorbeckes MVP of the match was Kendall Humphrey for Adna. Not only did Humphrey earn the final point of the match with a kill, but she had 17 kills and 13 digs in the match for the Pirates. Whether she was at the net or on the backline, Humphrey was getting the job done for Adna and played arguably her best match of the season in their toughest match of the year.

Following the big win, Adna moves to 5-0 and 1-0 in league play. The Pirates will get back to action on Thursday, back on their home court when they host the Toledo Riverhawks. Napavine drops to 5-1 and 0-1 in league play and they will have to refocus immediately after their first loss on the year. The Tigers will host the Raymond Seagulls on Wednesday, before going to Winlock to complete three games in three days.

You can watch the entire match on-demand in the link to the NFHS Network below.

Adna vs Napavine – Girls Varsity Volleyball 09/26/2023 | Live & On Demand (nfhsnetwork.com)