Lady Broncos make return to state

The Lady Broncos haven’t seen the Yakima SunDome during the WIAA 2B State Volleyball Championships since 2007 when they captured a sixth place trophy.

They’ll be there this year.

The team delivered an impressive come-from-behind win in five sets during the first round of the regional tournament against Tri-Cities Prep last Saturday, and then defeated Reardan in four sets to earn that return trip to the state tournament.

LRS will play at 9:45 a.m. Friday against Kittitas in the first round of the state tournament, looking for an opening round win, which guarantees that the team plays Saturday and has a fighting chance to bring home some new hardware.

“All season long the goal was to make it to state,” said head coach Cari Galbreath. “Now the goal is to place and come home with some hardware. Let’s focus on Kittitas, get a win and that sets us up better.”

The Lady Broncos will play a minimum of two matches on Friday and then could play two more on Saturday.

Against TCP, the Lady Broncos pulled of an exciting comeback, 27-25, 13-25, 23-25, 25-15 and 15-8.

In the final two sets of the match TCP never had a chance. The Lady Broncos raced to big leads and weren’t willing to give any ground.

“It was exciting for sure. I feel like so much happened that day,” Galbreath said. “To be honest I wasn’t sure. I didn’t know if we were going to recover.”

Galbreath talked strategy prior to the fourth set and the team recognized that TCP was hitting the ball to a specific location with success.

“Defensively we weren’t picking them up,” Galbreath said. “The girls started making better adjustments. They realized we better not leave anything undone.”

Dalyn Killian recorded 14 kills, four blocks and 17 digs in the battle. Mallory Kessler cranked out seven aces and Sydney Nelson finished with 18 assists.

The second match of the day wasn’t as pleasant as Davenport got the best of the Lady Broncos, 12-25, 11-25 and 10-25.

Kessler finished with five kills and one block. Nelson had 10 assists and two aces. Jenna Bennett provided eight digs and Killian had one block.

The tide turned again in the third match of the day when LRS rolled past Reardan in four sets, 25-23, 19-25, 25-17 and 28-26.

“It was closer than we anticipated. Reardan was playing with pure emotion,” Galbreath said.

Kessler banked 16 kills. Nelson finished with 24 assists. Soraida Chavez had 23 digs. Bennett provided five aces. Killian blocked four shots.