Photo by rocky ross
REASON TO SMILE. Stadium’s All-Narrows League player Ellen Andersen has seen her team enjoy more success this season.
The endangered species known as the Stadium Tigers football team had their moment of resurgence this fall, when they won back-to-back games for the first time since its current players were in kindergarten.
Last week, the volleyball team from Stadium emerged from the Narrows League tournament, impressively, with a trip to the district tournament as the league’s third seed, behind Gig Harbor and Olympia.
And this too was experienced as a moment of unusual glory for the school’s volleyball team – it also has been one of the more precarious populations among sports teams in the South Sound.
Stadium’s volleyball victory came against Bellarmine Prep (a sentence that possibly has never been written before).
“This is not the same Stadium team we are used to seeing,” Olympia coach Laurie Creighton said, while observing that match. “They are very much improved from previous years. Their ball control has gotten much better.”
Olympia came into the tournament as the top seed, with Gig Harbor and Bellarmine Prep behind them.
Going into the district tournament at Kentwood this weekend (Nov. 6-7), the order has changed slightly with Gig Harbor upsetting Olympia in the tournament championship game to get the first seed at district followed by Olympia, Stadium and Bellarmine.
“I think the girls feel like they legitimately belong in that top four now,” Stadium coach John Dillard said. “It’s been a gradual process; we have been getting more girls into the program, with more experience than we’ve had before and they are working hard.”
Junior Ellen Andersen, who was named to the All-Narrows League first team, senior Leah Barta and sophomore Jessy Taitano are powering the emergence of the team.
“You can see the improvement from a year ago,” Andersen said at practice this week. “We are a much better passing team. Last year we could hit as well as anyone and sometimes we could win a set against a good team, but we weren’t a solid passing team. Now I think we are.”
Andersen is one of the big reasons. Although her primary role on the team is as a hitter (she is 5’11 and can jump), she is agile for her size and makes a lot of good plays on the floor, diving and digging very difficult shots.
“She is a great athlete and the way she plays, always focused, shows other players the way to do it,” Dillard says.
Stadium’s opening match in the district tournament will be against Auburn at noon.
Bellarmine Prep, led by senior All-Narrows League first-teamer Victoria Fisher, faces Puyallup at 1:45 p.m.
Wilson High School, which came out of the tournament with the fifth seed, will face Auburn Riverside at noon.
Winners of the first round have quarterfinal matches at 5:15 p.m.
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