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St. Mary's claims third in the state By Greg Stiles EUGENE � Amity once more proved too much for the St. Mary�s Crusaders. But the Southern Cascade League champions shook off the loss Saturday and went on to nab third place in the Class 2A state volleyball tournament at the Lane County Fairgrounds. "Our offseason goal was to meet Amity again in the finals," said St. Mary�s coach James Joy. "But the big dream didn�t work out that way. Once we saw the brackets, we said, �Let�s get to the semifinals and see what happens.�" What happened was Amity posted its third win over the Crusaders this year, 15-2, 16-14. But St. Mary�s dug down and defeated Columbia Basin League champion Sherman County, 15-13, 15-12, in what turned into a battle of attrition. Both the Crusaders and Huskies found themselves in unusual alignments as the match dragged through nearly 50 rotations. A player can only enter a game three times, and teams that substitute frequently are more inclined to get caught choosing between front row and back row players as games drag on. "I looked around and we had two freshmen, two sophomores and two seniors on the floor," senior Kristen Zielony said. "We haven�t even been close to that situation before, where we went that deep into the rotation. But we just had to deal with it." Sherman (25-4) had four players 5-foot-10 or taller with St. Mary�s countering only with 6-2 sophomore Christina Vaninetti. But even though the Huskies picked up 18 kills, 11 digs and 10 blocks from 6-foot senior middle hitter Talia Sanderson, the Crusaders survived. The Huskies took leads of 10-8 and 13-9 in the first game before St. Mary�s made its move. Senior right side hitter Kim Hansen served up two points to trim the deficit in half, and two rotations later, freshman Kathryn Zielony tacked on three more. But it was another three rotations before Hansen stuffed Marci Bird�s attack to close out the game. Hansen�s tournament serving was in marked contrast to the regular season. She converted on 37 of 38 serves, helping the team�s overall serve figures rise dramatically. "Coach and I had a game going for a while where I had to do 10 push-ups for every serve I missed," Hansen said. She applied the same standard here and only had to count out 10 at tourney�s end. "It knew it would help the team along," she said. St. Mary�s jumped in front 10-4 in the second game then labored through 11 rotations before scoring again as the Huskies pulled to within 11-10. That�s when 5-6 sophomore outside hitter Libby Trum played more like a 6-footer, and delivered the lion�s share of her 13 kills. "At first they ignored me," Trum said. "Then, I noticed they were starting to get a block on me and I went, �Oh no, what do I do now?�" Trum hacked away for three rotations until the Crusaders pushed the lead to 13-10. Joy could only smile as he watched what appeared more like a group of defensive specialists patrolling the net. "We made up for not having any hitters up there by not having any block," mused Joy of a front line that averaged 5-4. Finally, the sixth-year coach decided to insert 5-7 Shannon Leever in the middle. "Shannon is going to be an outside hitter for us next year, but she played the middle for our JV this year," Joy said. "It was a bad spot for those kids to be in. I told our JV players that if they got in, it would mean we were blowing somebody out, somebody was blowing us out or that it would be in the end of a really, really tight game." But even with four inexperienced players on the floor, the Crusaders� two seniors applied the finishing touches. Setter Lani Brophy launched a two-hand shot into an open area deep in the Huskies� court for her sixth kill (to go with 15 digs and 21 assists) as St. Mary�s took a 14-10 lead. Then Kristen Zielony notched the final kill of her career to end the match. "I really wanted to play in the finals this year," Zielony admitted. "But Amity got in the way. I�m just glad our team won its last game." Zielony finished with 17 kills, 13 digs and three blocks, Trum had 13 digs to go with her 13 kills, Hansen had a career-high seven blocks, Kristina Easton had 14 digs and Jenny Gritsch had eight digs. CASCADE EARNS TROPHY � The No. 10 Cascade Christian Challengers brought home hardware from their first state tourney appearance. After losing their tournament opener on Friday, the Challengers advanced to the consolation finals with a 14-16, 15-7, 15-13 victory over Monroe Saturday morning. In the finals, they lost 15-9, 15-12 to Gervais. "Our goal was to make it to Saturday and to come home with some hardware," Cascade coach Susan Gmur said. "We came in ranked 10th and we exceeded our ranking, finishing eighth." Kelly Clarke, the team�s lone senior, passed, served and blocked well, while setter Whitney Brookins had a good effort as well. "We lost the first match in two games," Gmur said. "But then we came back and won our next two matches after losing the first game. We hung in as tough as we could." CLASS 2A ALL TOURNAMENT TEAM FIRST TEAM Shawn Paulino, senior, Amity; Talia Sanderson, senior, Sherman County; Ashley Anderson, junior Enterprise; Kim Tower, senior, Regis; Tashi Walker, senior, Amity; Kristen Zielony, senior, St. Mary�s. SECOND TEAM Kat McDonald, senior, Portland Christian; Angela Burright, junior, Gervais; Lani Brophy, senior, St. Mary�s; Heidi Beers, senior, Sherman County; Heather Wolf, senior, Regis; Sylvia Ofsfie, senior, Amity. 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