By Ray Hamill — The race for this year’s Redwood League championship in volleyball should be an exciting one, with some of the league teams making a case to be considered serious contenders.
On Tuesday night, one week after Ferndale knocked off Del Norte, the Hoopa Warriors got the better of another Pacific League school, beating McKinleyville in five sets.
The Warriors won 25-23, 25-20, 18-25, 17-25, 15-13 and improved to 9-8.
The win not only avenged an earlier loss to the Panthers but was also the Warriors’ second over a Pacific League school this month, having also beaten Fortuna.
This year’s Hoopa team has plenty of experience, with six seniors on a roster of 12, all of them back from last year.
Team captains Chloe King and Tylie McKinnon have been setting the tone for their teammates through the opening few weeks of the season and showcasing their leadership.
“They are probably our biggest supporters on and off the court,” Hoopa head coach Brittany Moore said. “They help for sure with encouragement when needed and they have put a lot of work in and are doing a really good job.”
Karmen Whitecrane, Allison Mace, Naress Crawford and Taelyr Lewis-Tracy round out the experienced senior class, while returning sophomores Luella Cosce and Vuunsip E-Kor each enjoyed strong freshman campaigns and have picked up just where they left off this fall.
Freshman BellaAnn King also is expected to play a key role when league play begins next week and is playing setter, with juniors Victoria Nelson-Bautista, Violet King and Kim Wagenfuhr rounding out this year’s roster and also expected to have a big impact in the coming weeks.
“This group of girls have put in a ton of work outside of school volleyball,” Moore said. “They have an amazing support system, and when they show up they show out.”
It was a productive offseason for the players, who have carried that momentum into the early season where they have been competitive and building steam ahead of the league opener at home to defending league champion St. Bernard’s on Tuesday.
Many of the players competed during the offseason with a club team from Orleans-based Pickship Athletics and that hard work is paying off this season.
“They’ve been putting in the work during the offseason and I do see a lot of that in their games so far,” Moore said.
The Hoopa girls also traveled to play at the Arcata tournament over the weekend.
The Warriors dropped all of their pool games to larger schools, before winning back-to-back games over defending St. Bernard’s and Mendocino to place first in the silver bracket.
Through the early season, Violet King leads the team in kills (1.6 per set) and blocks (19), while Cosce is averaging team-best 4.2 digs per set and BellaAnn King has been setting the pace at the service line with 31 aces, as well as in assists with 268 on the season.
In Tuesday’s win, E-Kor and Violet King had big nights and finished with a team-high 13 kills each, while Crawford had five aces and Whitecrane and Nelson-Bautista each had two blocks.
Cosce led the defense with 13 digs and BellaAnn King dished out a team-best 35 assists.
As for this year’s league, Moore is expecting a battle, as always.
“II think it will be very competitive all the way around,” the Hoopa coach said. “I’ve been very impressed with what I’m seeing (from the league teams), and I’m very excited for the season.”
