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Abi Udlock in mid-set.
It's often said in sports that the best defense is a good offense.
For the youthful La Conner High School volleyball team, which carries three eighth graders – Nora McCormick, Abi Poulton and Reese Bird – on its nine-player roster, the opposite is the case.
The Lady Braves, adjusting to heavy graduation losses from its state championship net program, have transitioned this fall from a power hitting team to relying on solid defense and crisp passing.
They worked that new approach to good effect last week with two key NW2B/1B home victories over Coupeville and Friday Harbor, respectively.
La Conner (5-4 overall, 3-0 in league) also sandwiched in a mid-week straight-sets triumph at 2A Sedro-Woolley.
"We're getting better every match," first-year head coach Pam Keller told the Weekly News after her club breezed to a 3-0 win Thursday against Friday Harbor. "And this is a group that really cares about each other."
Keller utilized her entire roster in a fast-paced match that featured several extended rallies, with players covering the floor nicely and repelling Friday Harbor attacks with repeated digs, deft passes and timely kills.
"We're definitely doing it with defense right now," Keller said. "With a young team like this, we've been figuring out the right spots for everybody to play."
After dropping four of five non-conference tests to start the season, the team figured things out fast last week, rallying to edge Coupeville in five sets on Sept. 26, then posting the first of two straight 3-0 verdicts at Sedro-Woolley the next night.
Against Coupeville, La Conner survived five ties and a brief 12-11 deficit in the decisive fifth set before scoring the final four points for a tight 15-12 verdict.
La Conner had won the first two sets by scores of 25-23 and 25-14. Coupeville forced the tie-breaking fifth set by winning the third and fourth frames 25-23 and 25-20.
The three-set line score with Friday Harbor was far less dramatic, at 25-9, 25-10 and 25-5.
Poulton set the tone early, serving four consecutive points to open the first set. Nora McCormick and Maeve McCormick each delivered kills during that mini-run.
Defensive specialist Addison Wigal fueled another opening set spurt with a sliding dig as the Lady Braves built a 12-6 edge. Maeve McCormick and Udlock gave the hosts a 23-9 lead with service aces before Morgan Huizenga closed out the set with a pair of kills.
Huizenga continued doing damage at the net in the second set. Her two kills and back-to-back aces from Udlock put the team ahead 13-9. Bird then took over with two kills and successive aces, the second capping a 6-0 run that clinched the set.
Friday Harbor took a 2-0 lead at the outset of the third set, but La Conner responded with a 25-3 run the rest of the way. Huizenga rang up five kills and a block, Poulton and Nora McCormick had one kill each and libero Addison Keller thwarted several Friday Harbor attacks to secure the match.
La Conner, however, has had no time to rest on its laurels. The Lady Braves now face a tough stretch of their schedule, starting with last night's league home match opposite Orcas Island. La Conner entertains Mount Vernon Christian tomorrow (Thursday) at 6:30 p.m. and hosts eastern Washington power Manson in a 2 p.m. matinee match Saturday.
"This," said Keller, "is a really big week for us."
And her hope, in the midst of a busy slate of matches – and to borrow from the famed courtroom phrase – is that the defense never rests.
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