TDN Feature Article

Jillian (and teammate Ella) was featured in The Daily News article about her senior volleyball season at RA Long.

Here's the text of the article:

The Jills weren’t satisfied with how their volleyball season went last year after tying for third-place in the 2A Greater St. Helens League.

Their season ended with a 3-2 loss to Mark Morris in a winner-to-state/loser-out match at districts. R.A. Long coach Whitney Nailon said her team is now solely focused on this season.

“We didn’t finish where we wanted to last year, they (the girls) felt it, so we just have our blinders on, just focusing on what we’re doing everyday,” she said.

For senior setter Jillian Woodruff, her aim is to make it to where she has never been in her three previous years on the team: to the state tournament.

“We’ve been so close the last two years and I would love for senior year to be the year to go,” she said.

This could be the season where they break through with Woodruff and senior middle blocker Ella Eib at the helm.

The senior leader

Woodruff was a first-team all-league and second-team all-area honoree last season after tallying 267 assists, 145 kills, 38 aces and 139 digs. This year, she is the team leader, a position she has desired to hold since her freshman year.

“This is something I looked forward to all four years,” she said. “This has all been building up to this moment. I feel like I’ve had a lot of good upperclassmen to help lead me and set the example for what a leader should look like in our program.”

She is striving to make the first team again and even has hopes of winning the league MVP, although her main focus is helping her team get to state.

“That would be really cool to get MVP, but I think first team again would be great,” she said. “I’m just looking to play a role for my team and help us get to districts and state.”

.......

The duo led R.A. Long to a season-opening win on Thursday against Black Hills. Woodruff finished with 47 assists while Eib had 14 kills, nine digs and hit .823. Eve Huhta — an all-league honorable mention last season — registered 10 kills and eight digs and Evelyn Ofstun hit .750 while tallying 12 kills and eight blocks. 

With Eib eligible for the entire season and Woodruff ready to lead the squad in her final run, the sky is the limit for the Jills.

“(Last year) didn’t end quite where we wanted it to, but I think we’re ready this season,” Woodruff said. “We saw that we can get that far, so now that we know that we can get there, we have another level that we can go to.”

Team Captain

Jillian was selected as Captain of the RA Long Varsity Volleyball team, along with teammate Rowan. She will participate in the pre-game coin flip with the referees.

Jillian will also continue to be the on-court captain for any disputes. This pic is from the game at Black Hills, where RAL won 3-2.

Varsity Jamboree

Jillian and Bridget had their first varsity volleyball action of the season at the Mark Morris Jamboree, where they went 2-2. It was an up-and-down night, but they finished strong. This pic shows both of them at the net on defense.

Here's the text from an article on Blastzone Media:

R.A. Long tests the waters across the lake

The Lumberjills deployed several different lineups and came away with mixed results during Tuesday’s jamboree across Lake Sacajawea on Natt Court. R.A. Long opened the night with a win over Toutle Lake (25-22), then dropped Hudson’s Bay (25-10), before falling to Mark Morris (25-20) and Kalama (26-24) to close out the preseason function.

“Tonight was full of opportunities for our team,” said R.A. Long head coach Whitney Nailon. “It was great to see glimpses of what we need to work on and play with lineups. We had a few ‘Wow, that was awesome!’ moments and a few, ‘Wowza! We need ball control’ moments.”

Ella Eib led the Jills with 20 kills on a .333 hitting percentage, and added 10 digs. Jillian Woodruff dished a team-high 26 assists to go with a team-high four aces for R.A. Long.

Eve Huhta led the Jills’ defense with 11 digs, while Sam Montgomery and Rowan Ward added eight digs each.

After falling to the Monarchs in a Civil-War preview, R.A. Long quickly fell behind Kalama and looked bound for a lackluster finish. However, a flurry of lineup changes helped the Jills rally back to force the set to extra points.

“What I appreciate most is we left on the ‘Wow that was awesome!’ moment and came back from a pretty big deficit against Kalama,” Nailon noted. “Everything started clicking, albeit a little late, but regardless, it was a great way to end the day on the court.”

R.A. Long is scheduled to open the regular season at Black Hills on Thursday. The Lumberjills are set to host Tumwater for their home opener at The Lumberdome, Tuesday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m.

Program Bonding

Jillian and Bridget spent Saturday with their RA Long volleyball teammates, making t-shirts and posters, playing volleyball and eating taco potluck.

The girls were put in the same playing group, and made t-shirts that looked like bathing suits:

Husky Football Game

Tor brought along his friend Evan to the Husky football game on Saturday night against the Colorado State Rams (the girls were at the RAL volleyball program bonding all day). Though the Dawgs had some struggles, they came away with the win.

We arrived a little late in Seattle due to traffic, then headed to Shake Shack for some delicious burgers and shakes. Our seats were in the usual spot (the east end zone), and the weather was perfect.

It was a late game starting at 8:00 pm, so we didn't return home until 2:00 am.

First Day of School

It was the first day of school for the 2025-26 year. Jillian is a senior at RA Long, Bridget is a freshman at RA Long, and Tor is a 7th grader at Monticello.

They all came home with a positive report of how the first day went.

Senior Sunrise

Jillian got up early this morning and headed out the door at 5:30 am to participate in Senior Sunrise with her RA Long senior classmates. They had donuts and Capri Suns, and watched the sun come up.

On the last school day of the year, they'll do Senior Sunset.