YAKIMA — Rainier saw its postseason hopes flash before its eyes for a moment.
The top-seeded Mountaineers started abysmally against the only team in the 2B State Tournament bracket with a losing record — 16th-seeded Orcas Island — in the first round Wednesday, losing a first set that wasn’t as close as the final score indicated.
But Rainier, fresh off a District 4 2B championship win last weekend, eventually collected its composure and won the next three sets, each by a bigger margin than the previous, to come out on top in four sets and advance to the quarterfinals.
“I think we just came in with a bundle of nerves. Everybody was so excited, and I think they put a lot of stress on themselves coming in,” Rainier head coach Carrie Ooms said. “I reminded them, ‘Hey, there’s a reason we’re at where we’re at. We’ve worked hard to get here. Go back to our fundamentals and work hard. Push point by point rather than looking to win the set. Just take it one point at a time.’”
After taking the first point of the match, Rainier gave up the next six to force an Ooms timeout. Orcas Island’s serves proved to be difficult to return, and the Mountaineers’ miscommunication made typically easy plays look laborious. Rainier trailed by as many as eight points in the first set but was able to chip away and bring the margin down to one at 23-22 before Orcas Island secured the final two points.
The second set started how the first ended, with an Orcas Island ace that grazed the reach of a Rainier back row defender and sailed out of bounds. Senior Anika Plowman helped the Mountaineers get back on track with a trifecta of service aces and two kills to give Rainier a 14-10 lead midway through the period.
Katelyn Eckroth’s service and Ellie Pringle’s attacking fueled Rainier to a 25-19 win in the second. The Mountaineers once again had to shake off some fog in the third set as the Vikings jumped in front 15-10. Orcas Island abused Rainier’s back row some more, exposing gaps in the defense.
Eckroth once again changed the game with her service. If her serve didn’t directly lead to a point on an ace, it set the Vikings up for failure to return. Then, the senior propelled Rainier to a four-point advantage with back-to-back aces. The Mountaineers closed the third set on a 15-2 run to win 25-17.
“It made a huge difference. Normally, Katelyn’s got a good, solid serve, and today, I don’t know if it was the adrenaline helping give her that extra push or what it was,” Ooms said of Eckroth.
Orcas Island scored the first point of the fourth set for its only lead of the frame. The Rainier that swept Toutle Lake on Saturday showed up in the final period — Allyson Ooms’ attacks were unstoppable, the defense was sturdy and the front line didn’t allow balls to get to the back row, where Rainier had trouble earlier in the match.
Finishing it off with a 25-13 fourth-set victory, the Mountaineers have now qualified for the quarterfinals for the third straight state tournament. Rainier (17-4) has won nine straight games and will look for its 10th in the quarterfinals against eighth-seeded Northwest Christian (Colbert) Wednesday at 7:15 p.m.
A Mountaineers win would pin them in their second semifinal in three years, facing either Lind-Ritzville-Sprague or Toutle Lake, the latter of which would be a district title game rematch.
“When they’re playing their basics, they’re fine. I think we just got lucky coming in the way we did with our first game. Hopefully in the next game, all the pre-game jitters are gonna be out, and we’ll be ready to compete a little bit harder,” Carrie Ooms said.
