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October 23, 2012

WHS ends season in 3 to Heritage Hills

By Dennis Glade Washington Times-Herald

JASPER — The Washington volleyball team’s season ended Saturday afternoon, but they didn’t go down without a fight.

The Heritage Hills Patriots defeated the Hatchets in three straight sets, 25-20, 25-23, 25-16, in the semi-finals of Class 3A sectional at Jasper.

Both teams came out firing in game one, splitting the first 20 points, before the Patriots put some space between themselves and the Hatchets (14-21) at a 20-17 advantage, before winning the first set by five points. In the second set, Heritage Hills jumped out to a quick 12-9 lead, which would become an 18-10 advantage.

Washington head coach Alicia Hand took a timeout as her team trailed 22-14. The Hatchets scored nine of the next 11 points, cutting the deficit to a mere point at 24-23. The Patriots responded by scoring the final point of the game, and escaping with a win that put the Hatchets on the brink of the end of their season. In the third game, Washington ran out of gas, as Heritage Hills closed out the match with a 25-16 third-set win.

Washington was led in kills by Rachel Chattin with 13 and Paige Hawthorne with 12. Araina Fidler added 14 digs, while Chattin pitched in 13 others. Amber Taylor had 14 assists and Hawthorne had two aces. Despite the final loss of the season, Hand could find no fault in her team’s performance.

“I’m very proud of the way they came back the first two sets,” Hand said. “They fought hard when we were down. The seniors carried us a lot today.”

All season, Hand preached to her team that mental toughness was an aspect of their game that couldn’t be overlooked when it came to the success of the team, and the Hatchets play showed that wasn’t the reason for their defeat Saturday.

“In that second set they came back and fought, they came back and pushed,” Hand said. “I was very proud of them for that, because we started off down and they (Heritage Hills) got a big lead. We fought right back up next to them where we were neck and neck.”

Despite the victory against Washington, the Patriots weren’t able to carry that momentum to the sectional championship Saturday evening. The host school, Jasper defeated Heritage Hills for the sectional crown in five sets, 23-25, 25-20, 23-25, 25-20, 15-10, their 34th in program history.

After finishing her second year as the head coach of the Washington program, Hand can clearly see the program heading in the right direction, and despite the disappointing loss Saturday, the Hatchets will be back.

“We have to go in and remember that every time we step into the gym for open gyms or any type of ball we can get we need to take advantage of it,” Hand said. “Build off this year and continue on for next year.”

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