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POMEROY––The Lady Pirates are in the playoffs after finishing the regular season with a three-set win over Garfield-Palouse at home on October 25, and has already played its first round in the playoffs.
Pomeroy Volleyball faced Prescott on its home court on Tuesday, November 1, in the first round of the District 9 1B tournament. Prescott was the number three team out of the Grape Division, visiting the Lady Pirates, the number two seed out of the Wheat Division. (Results in next week's East Washingtonian.)
A win against Prescott would set up a second-round match against the winner of the No. 1 Liberty-Christian Lady Patriots versus No. 4 Colton match, at the location of the higher seed. Should both Pomeroy and Liberty prevail, that would make the game at Liberty's Richland court at 6 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 3. If the Pirates are upset by Prescott, they would be shunted to the consolation bracket, playing against the loser of the Liberty/Colton match.
The third and final round of tournament play will be November 5 at DeSales High School in Walla Walla, beginning at 10 a.m. with consolation bracket matches. The championship game is set for 2 p.m. with both teams advancing to State and the match for the third berth to state starts at 4 p.m.
The Pirates downed Gar-Pal 25-11, 25-10, 25-22.
"It was good to finish the regular season with a win for our program and for our seniors on senior night, who only dropped one match on their home court this season while winning nine," said Head Coach Adam Van Vogt.
"We came out strong the first two games and were never really threatened before playing a closer third game where our focus waned a bit.
We need to get better about keeping our attacks in bounds, as mishits and some miscommunication led to too many easy points for Garfield-Palouse in set three but we were solid in those areas in sets one and two," Van Vogt said.
Serving was a strong point, he added, the team serving 95%, and with power as there were a season-high 22 aces. KayLee Schmidt counted nine aces. Jillian Herres (14/14), Schmidt (18/18) and Jentz (4/4) were perfect at the service line. Kendall Dixon made 10 of 11 serves and Haliee Brewer hit 10 of 12.
Other making an abundance of acers were Brewer with five, Herres with two and Dixon with one.
"We also had a very balanced attack," Van Vogt said. Four Pirates had at least seven kills: Kendall Dixon (8), Taylor Gilbert (8), Haliee Brewer (7), Clara Jentz (7), and Jadence Gingerich (3).
Jentz made two stuff blocks, Gingerich one, Herres 29 assists, Brewer 10 digs and Schmidt five digs.
Pomeroy finished with a 16-6 overall record, 7-3 in league.