By Dawn Stanley

Special to the Islands’ Weekly

The Lopez Island Volleyball team traveled to the Yakima Valley SunDome, Nov. 10 for the 1B State Volleyball Championships.

They played their first match on Friday against the Wilbur-Creston Wildcats. They won three games out of four with scores

of 25-13, 25-12, 20-25, and 25-13. This was the only Lopez team since 1996 to not lose a match at state in three games. This encouraged the Lady Lobos to enter into their next match with more fight and determination.

It paid off as they went on to win later that day against the Three Rivers Christian Eagles 3-0 with scores of 25-21, 25-18, and 25-12, not giving up a game and advancing to the next round. The most difficult thing about state championships is that there are 16 other teams that want and expect to win as well.

Assistant Coach Isabelle Tetu says, the competition is much higher because of the difference in the mental toughness and competitive maturity of the teams.

She and Coach Chico Chicovsky did whatever they could to create a fast paced, chaotic practice environment to get the girls used to the stressful competition.

The next day the Lobos played The Sunnyside Christian Knights for a chance to go on to play for 7th or 8th place in the championships. The Lobos were not willing to throw in the towel and fought until the bitter end taking the Knights to four games as well, but lost 25-23, 25-22, 16-25 and 25-19. Overall, the Lobos stayed focused as Coachs Chico and Isabelle pushed them to keep hitting fearlessly and refused to let the ball hit the ground.

The sportsmanship awards went to Marne Cook, Brianne Swanson and Shelby Prewitt.