OTHELLO – The Othello Huskies (8-11) concluded their season in the second round of the district tournament after falling to East Valley 0-3 on Saturday. The Huskies Head Coach Steve Parris said the team felt prepared for the game but struggled once they got on the court. 

“The girls said they felt very prepared, we scouted them, had numerous films on them,” said Parris. “We went through together as a team and decided, ‘OK, this is how we want to approach this. This is what we want to do.’ We felt like we had a really good game plan coming into it.” 

The Huskies fell behind in the first set, where they lost 15-25 to East Valley, and this continued into the second set, where they fell 17-25. By the third set, the Huskies got the score much closer, but it wouldn’t be enough to secure a victory, and the Huskies would lose that final set 23-25. 

Parris said the Huskies’ struggle in the matchup came from their serve-receive, which is something they didn’t have trouble with all season. Additionally, East Valley showed a very strong serving game throughout the match, which only made it harder for the Huskies to mount their comeback. 

“If you can’t get that first pass where you need it to go, it’s really difficult to do anything else,” he said. “That was probably our biggest downfall for that match, is that we just didn’t get the ball where we needed to.” 

Now having reached the end of the Huskies' season, Parris said there was a lot that the team accomplished that they can be proud of as they all showed impressive growth throughout the season. Last year, the Huskies finished seventh in the Central Washington Athletic Conference and were eliminated in the first round, and this year they finished fifth and won in the first round. 

He said after graduating a strong senior class in the previous year, the Huskies had a lot of holes to fill on the roster, and throughout this season, the players stepped up and filled those spots diligently.  

“I think that improvement in the way the kids were able to respond and take up that position and be able to go out there and play the way that they did this year was really fun to watch,” said Parris. 

The contributions from seniors Abbie Douglas, Shaylee Freeman and Whitlee Hollenbeck were key to the Huskies’ success this season. Parris said each of the players made huge contributions both on and off the court and was dominant when they played. 

The seniors’ legacy that they leave for the younger players on the team is showing what is possible when they go out on the court and give everything they’ve got every game, said Parris.  

“We’re expecting some accolades for them on the all-opponent team that’s coming up, so we just are hoping that as they go through that they recognize our appreciation of them and what they’ve done for our program,” he said. “They will be greatly missed, and we’ll just hope that we can again rebuild and keep going from there.” 

Parris said he is very confident in the future of the program as the Huskies have a large freshman and sophomore class with players on the team who all showed great strength this season, and he is confident in the abilities of the returning players to fill in the roles left by this year’s seniors. 

BOX SCORE:  

OTHL: 15-17-23: 0
ESVL: 25-25-25: 3 

    Shaylee Freeman, an Othello senior, serves the ball during a previous matchup this season. Huskies Head Coach Steve Parris said the seniors on the team this season showed the younger players what is possible when you play your hardest.
  

    The Huskies sophomore Meila Zuidema gets ready to serve the ball during an earlier game in the season. Huskies Head Coach Steve Parris said the team has a strong group of freshman and sophomores returning next season.