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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us November 4, 2004 Time is right for Grizzlies By Joe Zavala Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland High volleyball team seems to be peaking, and the timing couldn't be better. The Grizzlies will face Marshfield, Crook County and Gresham on Friday in the pool play round of the 16-team Class 4A state tournament at the Chiles Center in Portland. The Ashland Grizzlies bounded through the SOC three-way tiebreaker last week against South Medford and North Medford, then topped South Salem High to cruise into the Class 4A state playoffs this weekend in Portland. File Photo Ashland (21-5) finished the Southern Oregon Conference regular season tied for second, but delivered a double roundhouse on tie-breaker Monday and followed that up with a playoff thumping of South Salem. Those three impressive wins has Grizzly head coach Josh Rohlfing thinking big. "Our opinion is, there's not a team in the state that we can't compete with and there's probably a handful of teams that can compete for a state title," Rohlfing said. So are the Grizzlies one of those contenders? "I believe we are," Rohlfing said, "just based on the way that we've played in the last few matches." Getting hot It's hard to argue with that logic. The Grizzlies handled both North and South Medford in four games to earn the SOC's No. 2 seed to state, then were even more impressive in the straight-game win over the Saxons. South Salem rarely penetrated Ashland's defense - scoring just 19 points in the first and third games combined - and was routinely victimized by a Grizzly attack that looked virtually unstoppable. When the smoke cleared, the Grizzlies had registered 48 kills, a remarkably high number considering the shortness of the match. "I feel like leading up to the last couple of weeks we definitely have been playing our best volleyball of the year," Rohlfing said. "It's one of those things where we just had so many different parts at the beginning of the season and just had to find positions for those parts." Shifting gears They had to find new places for a few of those parts, too. The Grizzlies began the season running an offense that utilized two setters. Juniors Jessica Walters and Lindsey Stone shared that duty, and both took turns hitting as well. About halfway through the SOC season Ashland was hovering around the middle of the pack in the SOC standings, in danger of missing the playoffs and struggling to generate a consistent attack. Rohlfing then made an important executive decision. He moved Walters back to the outside hitting position she's excelled at and made Stone the permanent setter. With Walters and Stone back in their natural spots exclusively, the Grizzly offense suddenly took off. The significance of the switch was perfectly crystallized in an Oct. 7 match at South Medford. Ashland lost the first two games using its former strategy - and looked horrible in the process - but roared back after switching to its current lineup. The Grizzlies took the next two games before being tripped up in Game 5. It was their last SOC loss. "We took (Walters) out of the setting role to allow her to focus and to allow our offense and our team to have that outlet of having her on the outside and it also allows (Stone) to take control of the offense," Rohlfing said. "When we narrowed it down to having one set of hands on the ball, it's given us more consistency." Flying high South Salem absorbed the full force of Ashland's improved offense. Walters had 16 kills on just 24 attempts, sophomore middle hitter Maddison Thivierge had 10 kills on only 13 attempts and Stone had 37 of the team's 39 assists. Other factors have contributed to Ashland's rise. Freshman Ruby Stocking's dramatic improvement has earned her a spot in the starting lineup and sophomore hitter Sarah Holgen is starting to live up to her huge potential. Equally significant are the strides Ashland has taken defensively, both at the net and in the back row. Thivierge became a blocking sensation in the second half of the SOC season, and senior defensive specialist Liz DeFranco has been a rock of consistency. "A lot of it is just passes and some of these kids were brand new to the scene," Rohlfing said. "Serve receive is one of those things that just comes with more experience." If Ashland has a weakness, it's experience - or lack thereof. Walters and Stone had significant playing time in last year's state tournament, but everybody else spent most of the weekend watching or relaxing back in Ashland. Holgen and Thivierge were substitutes who saw little if any playing time at state and Stocking was playing for Ashland Middle School. DeFranco and outside hitter Holly Milligan are the team's only seniors. Rohlfing, who preaches mental conditioning almost as much as the physical kind, isn't fretting. "I'm not really nervous," he said. "I do have some anxious feelings about what their approach is going to be, but it seems like every time we step into a match they focus the right way. They seem to be taking to heart the discussions that we've had throughout the season. "I don't see that changing once we get on a bigger scene." 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