Woodland volleyball team encounters sectional sweep at hands of St. Pius

~ The Cardinals closed their season with a 24-10-1 record

ST. LOUIS -- Woodland volleyball coach Kacie Ritter-Patton didn't recognize the team on her side of the floor at the beginning of its Class 2 sectional Saturday at Vashon High School.

"We made our own mistakes," Ritter-Patton said. "I felt like we gave them ... granted they did play good, but I didn't feel like my team showed up for a while."

The Cardinals fell behind early and couldn't recover in a 25-16, 25-22 loss to perennial powerhouse St. Pius to end their season with a 24-10-1 record.

"It was mistake after mistake, and you could just see it in their faces. They've never been in this situation. Before I said usually they didn't do good in pressure, but I thought we got past that at the district tournament. This was just a whole other level."

Woodland players huddle around coach Kacie Ritter-Patton during the second game of their loss to the St. Pius Lancers in the Class 2 sectional game at Vashon High School.

Woodland fell behind 11-3 in Game 1. The Cardinals made four errors during that span, but also took just one hard swing on an attack, making things easier for the St. Pius defense.

"We had a mental breakdown," Ritter-Patton said. "We got too tight. We played too tight. We didn't hit. We barely hit at the end. We tipped, and it worked a lot of times, but when they adjusted we should have hit, and we didn't do that."

The Woodland players began to look more like the ones Ritter-Patton is used to seeing after a timeout. At one point they went on a 4-0 run to pull within three points at 16-13, but a 7-0 St. Pius run in reply all but finished off the game.

"We knew they were going to be a great team, so we were just wanting to keep the momentum going," Woodland senior Rachel Poole said. "We knew that that's what was going to make us -- if we were going to win, [what] was going to win it was going to be based on our momentum and not letting any mistakes get us down."

The Cardinals continued to play well into game two. They led until a 6-0 St. Pius run that featured two aces and a block tied the score at 13-13.

The teams exchanged a few scores before another St. Pius run, this one five points long, gave the Lancers a 21-16 advantage.

The play during that run underscored a conundrum for Woodland. A Woodland player hit a ball into the net trying to tip on one point and another player tipped multiple times unsuccessfully on another point before the Lancers eventually won it.

While it's simple to claim that hard swings would have been a better choice, it's also true that the Cardinals had a lot of success tipping into holes created by St. Pius double and occasionally triple blocking.

"We were going to tip, but we didn't know if we should or not, so we were hesitant about hitting," Woodland senior Josie Long said. "I think that kind of dug us a hole, not hitting as much."

Long, in particular, had success tipping to the side of the St. Pius block, but she couldn't help but wonder if it was an overused tactic.

"You don't know if your set's going to be there or not, so you don't know if you're going to hit it or tip," Long said. "Half the time I thought, 'I don't know if I can hit, so I might as well just tip,' so I figured I'd try to tip to one of the holes."

A sideout on a kill by Long pulled Woodland to within 22-19 and senior Ashley Chapman entered to serve.

Chapman served five times and recorded an ace before Long had a tipped blocked to make it 23-21. St. Pius closed out the match three points later.

"It feels really good to be known that we were part of a winning team, and we built a program that was successful," Long said. "I hope that keeps building and everybody gets better and better and the record gets better because I know everybody can."

Ritter-Patton told her seniors that she was proud of their accomplishments after the match and her underclassmen that increased commitment will be necessary.

"What I said was 'I hope this [gave] you the taste of it,'" Ritter-Patton said. "I simply just told them, 'Guys, if we want to get to the next level, you've got to play club ball. Being in the gym three months out of the year is not going to get us there."

The Cardinals, who had nine nine underclassmen on their roster, finished the season with 21 more wins than they collected two seasons ago.

"I'm ready for next year already," Ritter-Patton said.