Mules win district opener

The Wahkiakum Mules this week closed out the 2011 volleyball regular season with a good win over the Toutle Lake Ducks and opened the district tournament with a 3-0 win over the Morton/White Pass Timberwolves.

The Mules, who finished in a tie with the Pe Ell Trojans for second place in Central League standings, advanced to a semi-final game Wednesday with Pacific League champion South Bend.

The winner of the Wednesday game, played after The Eagle went to press, will play in the district championship game Friday, 7 p.m., in South Bend. The loser plays at 5:30 p.m. at South Bend for a chance to advance to state.

The Mules beat the Timberwolves 25-11, 25-20 and 25-22.

The Timberwolves had beaten the Raymond Seagulls 3-1 in a preliminary game to advance. The Mules won handily in the first game, but the Timberwolves bounced back and put up a fight before falling.

Setter Brieanna Olsen had 26 assists for the Mules. "She spread the ball around well evenly, distributing it to all our hitters which kept Morton-White Pass blockers off balance," said Mule Coach Jeff Rooklidge.

"Blaine Land led us with 11 kills and eight digs along with 14/15 serving and four aces. Tori Wegdahl had nine kills, six aces and 12 service points. "

Marissa Washington added five kills and made a couple nice blocks, Rooklidge said.

Madison LaBerge served 15/15 and had five kills and six blocks, and Baylee Olsen had five kills, 8/10 serving and four service points.

"Haylee Budd had two kills, and seven digs with some solid passing out of the back row," Rooklidge said. "Ashley Silva, Maya Stanley and Brianne Helms all contributed with excellent defense."

Mules 3, Ducks 1

The Mules closed out their regular season schedule October 26 with a 3-1 win over the Toutle Lake Ducks.

The Mules won the first set 25-21; Toutle took the second 21-25, and the Mules won the next two 25-22 and 25-23. In the last set, the Mules were down 22-23 and rallied to win.

"Both teams fought as hard as they could and gave a great performance," Rooklidge said.

"Brieanna Olsen gave us a gutsy performance after twisting her ankle; she gutted it out with a 50 assist performance. She was really dialed in with our middles, setting 16 quick attacks leading to kills in the middle. She also had eight blocks and 10/12 serving."

Land dominated the net with 28 kills and added nine service points, and eight digs.

"Tori had 20 kills and was all over the court with some great defense," Rooklidge said. "She had 10 digs and eight service points.

"Baylee Olsen had 10 kills and her best blocking performance of the season with eight blocks. Haylee was key to the win with 18 digs and eight perfect passes in serve receive along with seven service points.

"Marissa had her best match of the year with seven kills and four blocks. She carried us for a while in the third set with some tremendous kills connecting with Brieanna on our quick attack.

"Madison had a huge night from the service line with 20/22 and 14 service points along with nine touch blocks.

"Ashley added two blocks and four deflections along with some solid offense. Maya added four digs, and Brianne added five, giving us good defense in the back row."