The last time the Cedarcrest women’s volleyball team went to

the state championships, it was 1994 and the team competed at A level.

Five years later, the Wolves made it back _ this time as a 3A school

led by coach Christine Stefani-Hillstead _ and managed to put a scare in

several other teams before settling into eighth place.

The young squad had quite a run.

The championship series opened last Friday at St. Martin’s College

in Lacey with pool play. Cedarcrest fell to Lynden 15-3 and 15-13 in the

first game. The Wolves then regrouped and came back to dump White River

9-15, 15-4 and 16-14 and fellow KingCo 3A representative Newport by scores

of 9-15, 15-6 and 16-14. The victory over the Knights marked Cedarcrest’s

first in three tries this season, and put the Wolves into last Saturday’s

match play.

Unfortunately, the Cedarcrest squad ran into a buzz saw,

eventually losing all three games, but the first series with eventual state

champion Fife was a near-run thing. The court Wolves battled back from major

point deficits in both games before succumbing to Fife by scores of

15-13 and 15-10. In the consolation round Cedarcrest dropped two to

Interlake, 15-5 and 15-10, and then lost to West Valley of Yakima, 15-8 and 15-7,

giving them eighth place.

The team leaders for the final series were seniors Erin Townsend,

5 kills; Katie Power, 5 kills; and junior Julie Henry, with 10 assists.

For the seniors _ Townsend, Power, Heidi Vandanacker,

Crystal Merrick, Lauren Peterson, Rachael Barksdale, Julia Riera and

Lacy Lawson _ the chance to go to state put the perfect cap on their high

school careers.

Said Power, a four-year member of the Red Wolf varsity, “It was

really good to finally get there.

“We knew in advance we could take Newport, it was just a matter

of who wanted the game more,” she added. “We fell behind early in

the Fife series, but it felt good to know that we played that well against

the eventual state champs.

“The team felt really good after it was all over. I think a lot of

people didn’t expect us to make it to the second day, so we surprised a lot

of people.”

As for the coach, the weekend actually marked a return to the

state championship; Hillstead was a senior middle blocker on that 1994 Red

Wolf team which finished second in the state.

She remarked that this year’s finish was the second highest in

the school’s history, a fact which thrilled her players.

“It was great that we were able to get that fourth spot out of districts,

and then we found that Newport was in our pool,” said Hillstead. “The girls

got pretty excited, because we’d played them two times and thought we

should have beaten them. We also played White River early in the season

and beat them, so I told the girls we had to beat both Newport and White River.

“It was kind of neat. People said Cedarcrest shouldn’t have even

been there, yet we made it to the second day. Other people said our pool was

easy, but Lynden was there and they played for the title.”

Concerning next year’s Red Wolf volleyball squad, Coach

Hillstead knows it’s going to be tough losing eight seniors. However, she

points with optimism to a savvy group of juniors.

“Four of my strongest players are returning,” she commented.

“Julie Henry is the returning center and Dorothy Westermann plays all the time.

I have some good kids coming up from JV that might have been varsity

elsewhere.”

With this foundation, the 2000 Cedarcrest volleyball team

should prove itself once again as a force to be reckoned with in KingCo 3A and

_ conceivably _ at the state level. Power certainly thinks so.

“All I can say is the juniors just need to keep the state tradition

going,” she concluded.