High School Volleyball: R.A. Long wins seesaw Civil War at Mark Morris
Five-Set Thriller – Lumberjills lean on co-captains Woodruff & Ward to halt MM rally
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High School Volleyball / Report
NATT COURT — The R.A. Long Lumberjills took Round 1 of the season’s Civil War matchups with a five-set win at Mark Morris. And that teeter-totter affair was a perfect representation of the type of back-and-fort rivalry action that Longview volleyball fans have come to expect in recent seasons.
The Lumberjills stormed out to a victory in the opening set, but then dropped the next two frames, setting up a dramatic comeback on enemy hardwood. R.A. Long ran away with the fifth set to take the contest by scores of 25-19, 19-25, 22-25, 25-21 and 15-3.
If you need a reminder of the recent history between the Jills and Monarchs, here you go — last season the two teams played four times, and split the series. The regular season series went down the middle, with each team winning on the other’s court. Then R.A. Long won a mini-tiebreaker (best-of-three) match to sort the seeding prior to the district tournament, but the Monarchs got the last laugh when they beat the Jills by two points in five sets at the dark end of the District bracket.
Got it? Good.
“I told the girls, everyone has a match circled on their calendar and 1000 percent R.A. Long had this match circled,” Mark Morris head coach Carmen Hewitt said. “We beat them at Districts last year and ended their season in a winner-to-state… I was not shocked R.A. Long came out on fire in that first set. And good for them.”
The Lumberjills would certainly agree. Especially players like Jillian Woodruff, a veteran setter who has been through more Civil Wars than she can remember. But you can bet she wakes up ready to eat grits and march to the beat of a snapping snare drum on rivalry game day.
“When we lost to them at Districts last year we were pretty beat up,” Woodruff noted. “But it felt really good to come in here and get the win in my senior year.”
Woodruff, a co-captain on the team, led R.A. Long out of their five-one system, alternating between facilitator and leading attacker and keeping the Monarchs off balance. She finished with 13 kills (.619 efficiency) and a team-high 26 assists to go with four aces, nine digs, and two blocks.
Woodruff certainly has a feel for the game. And it’s only getting better.
“Jillian tonight had 13 kills, and only one of those was from hitting. The rest of those were from dumping and just being smart and seeing the court,” R.A. Long head coach Whitney Nailon said. “This is what she’s capable of as far as running an offense and being dominant like that. Her play tonight was incredible.”
But in spite of their quick start and talented lineup, it was no cake walk for the Lumberjills within the confines of Bakamus Gymnasium. It never is.
In the second set R.A. Long began to struggle with its serve, handing free points and one side out after another to the Monarchs. And Mark Morris seized on the opportunity, winning the second and third sets and putting the guests on high alert.
“We can’t have players go back there and miss serves,” Nailon noted. “It’s really just a momentum killer.”
Hadley Bartell led the Monarchs with seven kills. Alena Anderson and Makenzie Henthorn each added a half dozen kills for MM, with Anderson posting three blocks and Henthorn notching 11 digs.
“We had our moments,” Hewitt noted.
Rio Dieter handed out a team-high 26 assists to go with four aces for the hosts, while Lexi Gunter turned in a team-high 25 digs and six aces. Aela McNeilly chipped in 13 digs in the loss.
And Mark Morris was nearly able to nail down a victory, leading 20-16 in the fourth set, before allowing their momentum to swing back across to the other side of the net down the stretch. The Monarchs committed 39 errors in the match.
“That fourth set we had them and then we missed three serves in a row,” Hewitt noted. “What I told my team is we need to show up in big moments.”
Meanwhile, the Lumberjills were ready to strike as soon as Mark Morris left the to a comeback cracked just a little bit. That attack was given some extra juice when Ella Eib shifted from the middle of the court to an outside hitter station.
Eib went on to post a game-high 16 kills for R.A. Long, while adding eight digs and four blocks. Evelyn Ofstun played big at the net with eight kills and six blocks, and co-captain Rowan Ward added 15 digs and a dialed in run at the services stripe to help close out the win.
“In the fifth set Rowan came out and she just hustled and dug everything and served great,” Woodruff noted.
The importance of those well-placed serves can hardly be overstated for a team that struggled to get the ball over the tape and in the rectangle for extended stretches on the night.
“We were making a lot of errors and we kind of let them take the lead,” Woodruff added. “I think one of the things we did that was really important was to reset. We’ve been doing a lot of mental training so we were able to lock it in a box and keep playing.”
Erica Espinoza, a swing player who also gets reps on JV, helped the Jills’ cause with three aces and six digs in crunch time. And Bridget Woodruff handled a utility role for R.A. Long, shifting from outside hitter to middle blocker and helping to set a solid wall at the net.
But as they crowded into a local ice cream shop and mulled over their postgame choices, none of the Lumberjills would let the contributions of their team captains — Jillian Woodruff and Rowan Ward — go without just a little more spotlight on their performances.
“They were so composed and really just took control,” Nailon said. “It’s exactly what you want your team captains to do. They led us tonight.”
What’s Next
The stretch run through the back half of 2A GSHL play promises to be a bareknuckle affair day in and day out as teams battle for a playoff spot and seeding.
“The middle of our league is very even,” Hewitt noted. “Woodland, Washougal, us, R.A. Long, — we’re all very even. And whoever shows up that night is going to take the win.”
And the next step will not be an easy one for either team, with a pair of road contests against the top two squads in the league on tap.
R.A. Long (6-3, 4-2 league) will play at Ridgefield on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Mark Morris (4-4, 3-3 league) will play at Columbia River on Thursday at 7 p.m.
“How do we respond? That’s our choice,” Hewitt said. “We were in a worse spot last year and we still made it to State. It’s a dogfight in our league. We’re already in a dogfight and I don’t think anyone is going to clean out the rest of the season.”
