Jr. Hi Volleyball finishes season with successes

POMEROY–The Pomeroy Junior High Volleyball Team finished a sparkling season, the A Squad finishing with a 9-1 record and the B Squad going 7-3, says Coach Adam Van Vogt. "I'm really excited to see these 8th graders continue to develop as high schoolers next season," he said.

"It was our second consecutive season winning nine matches," he said. "The Eighth graders on the A team the last two years finish their Seventh and Eighth-grade years going a collective 18-2 and they never lost on their home court."

The program's record was 22-4 as the C team was undefeated.

"We knew it would be another set of great games," said Van Vogt. "We opened by taking game one 25-17. Game 2 was highly competitive with a lot of great rallies. It went back-and-forth and Colfax won the highest scoring junior high match I've ever witnessed by the score of 32-30! It was a really difficult loss but our girls showed some awesome resilience and bounced back to take game three 15-10.

"I am so proud of our girls and this is one of the biggest junior high wins I can remember coachin," Van Vogt said. "Colfax is a really good team so the win is good anyway but to lose such a well-played intense game two and to come back and take game three is difficult for any high school team to do so it is really cool to see our girls be able to overcome that adversity."

Pomeroy played its second match at Asotin. "Asotin is a solid team as well," Van Vogt said. "They don't shank a lot of serves and make us earn our points. Our girls responded well and really did a great job of rallying."

The Pirates won three straight behind 88% serving and steady play, he said.

The team's final match of the season was in Rosalia vs. Tekoa-Rosalia.

"Just like against Asotin, we won all three games and served 88%," Van Vogth said.

"Our girls collectively improved their serving over the course of the season to where we were hitting percentages like this most matches in the second half of the season," he said. "Keeping pressure on other teams at the serve line is so important and I am really proud of how we served and serve received as the season progressed.

I am also pleased with how well we moved on defense and transitioned this season. We were crisp and moving and just didn't give away many free points. Our girls have a lot to be proud of this season.

Match 1: Pomeroy defeats Colfax 25-17, 30-32, 15-10. Stats: Hollie Van Vogt- 19/20 serving with 7 assists and 4 aces; Reagan Mckeirnan- 13/15 serving with 5 aces, 5 digs, and 4 kills; Kylee Wegrzyn- 12/13 serving with 3 aces and 3 kills; Tatum Jones- 4 digs and 3 kills; Kiarra Marquez- 7/7 serving with a dig.

Match 2: Pomeroy defeats Asotin 25-17, 25-21, 15-11. Stats: Hollie Van Vogt- 15/17 serving with 10 aces, 4 assists, and 3 kills; Reagan Mckeirnan- 14/15 serving with 7 aces and 3 kills; Kylee Wegrzyn- 8/9 serving with 5 aces and 5 kills; Destinee Humphries- 5/6 serving with 3 aces and 6 assists; Ariah Bingman- 1 kill.

Match 3: Pomeroy defeats T/R 25-10, 25-9, 15-8. Stats: Hollie Van Vogt- 11/11 serving with 9 assists, 6 aces, and 5 kills; Reagan Mckeirnan- 14/15 serving with 7 aces, 2 kills, and a block; Kylee Wegrzyn- 13/15 serving with 8 aces and 4 kills; Heather Hastings- 8/10 serving with 2 aces; Addy Maki and Raelin Nagle- 2 kills each.

During the Week of February 5-9, the team suffered its first loss of the season to Colfax, then bounced back to defeat Garfield-Palouse.

Match 1: Colfax defeats Pomeroy 25-17, 25-17, 15-17. Stats: Hollie Van Vogt: 9/10 serving with 3 aces, 4 kills, and 7 assists; Reagan Mckeirnan: 3 kills and 3 aces; Tatum Jones: 3 kills; Kiara Marquez: 6/6 serving; Heather Hastings: 6/8 serving with 2 aces.

Match 2: Pomeroy defeats Garfield/Palouse 25-12, 20-25, 15-13. Stats: Hollie Van Vogt: 17-19 serving with 9 aces and 6 assists; Reagan Mckeirnan: 15/17 serving with 9 aces and 3 kills; Destinee Humphries: 7/7 serving with 2 aces; Kiara Marquez: 5/6 serving with 2 aces and a kill.