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By BEN MCCARTY
News staff writer
September 3, 2008
Last year the Cascade Locks volleyball team finished near the
bottom of the Big Sky West division and lost several key seniors
in Mikayla Ryan and Kristen Rutherford.
You wouldn’t know it from watching them practice. The Pirates
have found a boost in confidence in the off season, bolstered by
a camp designed to fix one of the team’s biggest weaknesses last
season and a strong freshman class.
“They are not afraid of hitting the floor,“ Pirates coach Tasha
Nolin said as she watched her players sprinting up and down the
floor in “suicide” sprints on Thursday. “This is the most
athletic group I’ve ever coached.”
Five new talented freshmen give the Pirates plenty of room to
grow and rounds out a roster of several returning key role
players from last year. Those returners include senior captains
Ashley Simons and Ashley Muilenburg, who are both ready to get
the season started.
“I think we are going to have a good season,” Muilenburg said.
“There has not been any attitude this year; just love for the
game.”
The Pirates put in a significant amount of work this summer to
improve their passing game. The passing has been one of the
weaknesses for the Pirates in recent years. When they could get
to the set-spike series of “bump-set-spike” they had players who
could set and put the ball away well, but getting to that part
was the challenge.
Part of the work was a camp put on by coaches from the
University of Idaho, who hosted a camp at the school.
“They were awesome,” Simons said of the Idaho coaches.
Nolin has already seen a big improvement during practice.
“It made a world of difference,” she said.
Nolin knows just how critical developing a consistent passing
game will be for the Pirates’ prospects of success.
“That’s our focus,” she said. “Of course the girls want to hit
and set in practice but you can’t set up an offense if you can’t
pass.”
The Pirates will have to use their speed, athleticism and
newfound passing skills to make up for the lack of a tall
presence at the net.
However, their captains think their development will help them
make up for that.
“They are progressing wonderfully,” Simons said.
Some of the athleticism and tenacity of the Pirates was on
display at practice on Thursday, when Nolin had the players
working on passing and setting drills with teammates as well as
a drill where Nolin would toss the ball shallowly over the net,
and the players would have to rely on their speed and reflexes,
often stretching into full-out dives across the gym floor to get
to it.
Over the summer, Nolin gave her team one assignment: Each player
carries a team folder and Nolin asked each player to write down
one goal they wanted to improve on this season.
She says her goal this season has nothing to do with wins or
losses, but is to see each player accomplish whatever their
individual goal that they wrote down in the folder.
Even with the new influx of talent and improved skills the
Pirates still have a rough road ahead if they are going to catch
division front-runners Dufur and Sherman County, but for the
first time in several years the Pirates believe they have reason
to feel confident and optimistic heading into the season.
“I’m excited to see this team play,” Nolin said. “This team is
more ready than in past years for the season opener.”
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