WRHS VOLLEYBALL: Hornets’ perfect run continues with pair of wins

The undefeated White River High volleyball squad’s 2009 campaign came to a crescendo Monday, when the Hornets hosted Auburn Mountainview, the only other South Puget Sound League 3A squad without a league loss.

Results came too late to include here, but will be posted at www.courierherald.com.

White River was coming off a successful week, having beaten Yelm 25-19, 25-13, 25-14 on Oct. 13 and then defeating Bonney Lake in five games Thursday. The Hornet bunch pulled it off 21-25, 26-24, 25-22, 15-25 and finally a lopsided 15-6 sudden death win.

“The girls showed a lot of heart and desire to come down the road and beat a team like Bonney Lake,” said assistant coach Jayme Peloli, who took the helm in mid-match after coach Stryder Argo became ill. “I just kept telling the girls not to give up, because we can still win it all in sudden death.”

And win it they did, sprinting out to a 10-1 advantage before Bonney Lake coach Shirley Baker called time out, if for no other reason than to deter White River’s momentum. After the brief break, the Panthers began to come back, making the score 12-6. The Hornets had learned a valuable lesson in game three, though, where they led 15-5 but had to withstand a Panther rally.

The Hornets’ victory featured some stellar individual statistics, most notably Kelsi Tyler raining down 24 kills and Jailyn VanSickle helping out with 36 assists. Dannie Stroud was a terror offensively and defensively registering a half a dozen kills and as many blocks.

The Hornets will travel to Sumner High tonight, Wednesday, and wind down the regular season by hosting rival Enumclaw Monday.