Prep Volleyball Roundup: Scores and reports from The Blast Zone
Mixed Bag — Monarchs, ‘Nooks, Comets clinch State berths, Clatskanie finishes 6th in OSAA, and more…
Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com
Monarchs punch ticket in Civil War Round IV
WOODLAND — As the old saying goes: If you haven’t figured it out after fighting three wars, you’re gonna have to fight a fourth. The war mongers got their way again when Mark Morris and their sworn on-court enemies from R.A. Long were forced to square off one more time to decide who gets to represent Longview at the SunDome.
The teams split the regular season series before the Lumberjills took a best-of-three set win in a tiebreaker playoff before the 2A District IV Volleyball Tournament began. And then after two more days of volleyball at Woodland High School the inevitable happened and the bracket aligned to pit Longview’s biggest high schools against one another with the stakes as high as they’ve ever been — To the winner would go a berth to the state tournament, while the loser would be relegated to club volleyball season.
And so, after being swept on Saturday morning by Columbia River in the tournament semifinal, Mark Morris rose up once more and played party pooper to the Jills with a five-set victory that was as tighter than skinny jeans on Thanksgiving. After dropping the first set, the Monarchs took the season’s final Civil War meeting by scores of 20-25, 25-23, 21-25, 25-18 and 16-14.
“This match was such an intense battle,” Mark Morris coach Carmen Hewitt said. “Both teams played well and refused to give up. I think this was our best defensive effort all season.”
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