Freshman Jessie Smith brought intensity to the volleyball court this season.

YAKIMA — The effort was there, just not the points on the scoreboard.

Through four sets, just about every Naselle volleyball player ended a rally spread-eagled on the court after diving for the ball.

But it was not to be. The Comets won the first set of their opening round match at the WIAA 1B state tournament 25-13. But a relentless Garfield-Palouse squad shifted into gear to take the ensuing three sets 25-23, 25-22 and 25-14 to advance to the next round.

The dispiriting single-elimination format of the first-round bracket meant Naselle’s season was over.

“It’s hard, when you want something so bad, there’s a heaviness to that,” said a tearful head coach Rebekah Wirkkala. “I don’t know … it kind of got away from us.”

Naselle had qualified for state a week earlier in the district playoffs, losing a five-set match and then battling through two loser-out contests with 3-1 victories.

“We came out like the team that made it through the playoffs with minimal errors and cohesiveness,” said the coach. “We came out fired up — then I don’t really know what happened.

“We let our mistakes go. We had that ‘next point’ mentality that we have had all season, it just wasn’t there.”

Vigor

Naselle came into state with a 12-7 record. Only three matches had gone to five sets; two losses to Willapa Valley and the playoff defeat by Columbia Adventist.

In the first set, junior Mylee Dunagan had the first of her nine kills and classmate Haylee Rose added two of her 12 as Naselle blocked, set and returned with vigor. Captain MyLinh Schell served efficiently (she had three aces) and when freshman Kaitlyn Steenerson, the tallest Comet at 5-foot-10, walloped the ball over to make it 18-9 there were high-fives all the way down the bench as she subbed out.

Schell said the 25-13 tally was the true measure of the 2024 Comet squad. “That set told us what we were,” the captain said. “That was Naselle volleyball.”

Clever

The blue-and-gold-clad fans’ chant of “Comet power!” throbbed through the stadium as the second set began.

After a muddy back-and-forth beginning, junior Brooke Davis scored with a jumping kill, one of a dozen on the day, and sophomore Aubrey Katyryniuk cleverly rolled the ball over the net to bring the scores closer. Naselle reduced the deficit, Rose earning a point with a clever tip-over, and freshman Jessie Smith duplicating her move to tie the score at 20 before the Vikings edged ahead. Smith proved a valuable addition to the Comet roster, with three aces and multiple confident plays as a setter.

The stats for digs said it all: Colombo had 12, junior Sadie Kilponen had 11, Schell had nine and Davis eight.

But the third set saw Garfield (15-5 on the season) ramp things up. Naselle’s Rose countered with three big plays and sophomore libero Sophie Colombo was remarkably able to return the ball while tangled up with Schell. But a couple of unreturnable kills signaled the end; the Eastern Washington team won the fourth set 11 points ahead. Later, the Vikings would lose a five-set match to champions Wilbur-Creston-Keller and then be eliminated 3-0 by seventh-place trophy winners Waterville-Mansfield.

‘Disciplined’

Her face streaked with tears, Schell stepped forward to receive the WIAA officials’ sportsmanship medal; it was her last moment in a Comets sports uniform.

Later, the senior became more cheerful as she reflected on the last four months. “It has been the best season that I have had in my four years of playing volleyball,” she said. “The girls are just amazing. They are driven, but they keep the fun in the games. They have been a really supportive unit.

“We have a lot of young players, but they are so disciplined.”

She predicted her Comet co-captains, Davis and Dunagan, both multiple-sport athletes at Naselle, will soar in their senior season.

“I want to give a shout-out to Brooke and Mylee. They are real leaders and they are going to take this team places next year!”