Washington state volleyball: Two at the top: Colfax, Pomeroy both nab state titles

YAKIMA, Wash. - Their coaching friendship dates back three decades - in other words, before Sue Doering took the reins at Colfax High and Jim Greene arrived at Pomeroy.

On Saturday, each was celebrating an accomplishment that never gets old.

Doering claimed her 12th state title as Colfax boss and Greene - making a surprise return to volleyball coaching this year at Pomeroy - captured his seventh career crown as the Washington Class B prep volleyball tournaments wrapped up at the SunDome.

And the two coaches saw nothing but 3-0 sweeps in the semifinal and final matches Saturday.

Kori Goodwin racked up 33 assists and three aces as Colfax defeated Wahkiakum 25-18, 25-15, 25-14 for the 2B championship, while Savannah Ruark and Ally Bott tallied 22 kills apiece as Pomeroy swept Almira/Coulee-Hartline 25-10, 25-6, 25-14 for the 1B title.

It was a second straight crown for Colfax, and Pomeroy's first since Greene wrapped up his previous stint at the school in 2005.

"Good job to Jim - he's been a friend of mine for probably 27 or 30 years," Doering said. "I knew him at Reardan (his previous school) when I was at Deer Park."

In the championship match, Greene's Pirates (27-3) showed the same dominance that Doering's Bulldogs have shown on big stages in recent years.

"I was surprised at the championship match, quite honestly," Greene said. "The kids just steamrolled them, and ACH was a good scrappy team. We just didn't make a lot of unforced errors, and they (the Warriors) never got going. Our kids hit well, they dug stuff off the floor and kept the pressure on."

Ruark, the Pirates' senior middle hitter, "had a great tournament, but they all took their turns," the coach said.

Skylar Smith came through with seven aces in that match and finished the day with 13 kills. Ireland Mayfield racked up 56 assists in the two matches, and Kacey Halbert collected 19 digs.

The Pirates' semifinal match was much different in tone, though they swept that one as well. They outscrapped Christian Faith 30-28, 26-24, 25-18.

"It was an absolutely phenomenal match - it was blow-by-blow," Greene said. "That was probably the (real) championship match."

Greene thought he had retired from volleyball coaching nine years ago, but he resumed the helm when Bruce Crossfield resigned two weeks before the season, despite welcoming back the nucleus of a team that placed third at State last year.

"I'm very fortunate to be asked to come do that," Greene said. "They're very athletic young ladies and put in a lot of time and effort and worked extremely hard to get to where they're at."

He said his assistant coach, Rob Monahan, and Crossfield both "deserve a lot of credit for this. I was just the person who put my name down as the head coach."

Colfax established a pattern Saturday of pulling away at about the 15th point, a testament to patience and strong serving, Doering said. In the title match, the Bulldogs missed five serves in the first set, two in the second, one in the third.

"When you have that kind of force coming at you all the time," said Doering, whose 12 state titles for Colfax have come during a 27-year career at the school, "at some point you break and say, 'I don't know what we can do.' Our opponents were competitive. But we had balanced hitting, pretty balanced digging, covered the court really well.

"Having such a strong team, it's nice to complete the journey in that fashion."

Goodwin averaged 32 assists for the Bulldogs' four matches in the tournament, and her back-to-back aces blunted a Wahkiakum rally and ended the second set.

Kindra Kneale and Katelyn Scholz exerted similar pressure from the service line in the final set.

Amara Huber, though she missed a serve for the first time in eight weeks, rang up 12 kills, five blocks and seven digs in that match as the Bulldogs finished the season 33-2, their only losses coming to University High and Kamiakin.

Scout Cai added eight kills, six blocks and eight digs, and Olivia Mellor contributed precision passing, tallying seven digs.

In the semifinals, Colfax dispatched Mossrock 25-12, 25-19, 25-18. Goodwin had 37 assists, Huber and Mellor nine kills apiece and Carmen Gfeller eight. Huber and Goodwin added 10 digs each.

Both Colfax and Pomeroy will need to replace three seniors next year. The Bulldogs lose Huber, Kneale and Goodwin, while the Pirates bid adieu to Ruark, Smith and Cheyenne Miller.