Honker Hysteria!

There's no way anybody in the gymnasium could have seen it coming, but the Willows High volleyball team was certainly glad it did.

After taking the first two games from Yreka by a total of just 10 points combined, the Honkers thoroughly discombobulated the Miners in the third game, storming out to the first 11 points and a 25-5 win to bring the Northern Section Division IV championship home with them from Red Bluff High.

It is believed to be the school's first-ever volleyball championship, according to principal Jerry Smith.

The Lady Honkers improved to 33-7, and Tuesday's state playoffs match at home versus Sacred Heart Prep, from Atherton, was also a first.

Willows coach Carol Martin was just as surprised by the Game 3 blowout, saying, "I don't know where that came from. Games 1-2 inspired them to take it all and never give anything. (Yreka) just kept making mistakes and we capitalized on every one of them."

In the deciding third game, Colleen Tade served for 10 of the first 11 points - a run that featured kills by her, Mary Feeney and Ally Brunner, and a pair of Megan Hughes blocks.

"We got out there and we knew it was our last chance to do something great this year, so we just played our best," said an exuberant Tade. "We blocked, we covered, and passed the ball like crazy."

Game 1 saw Willows open up a 7-3 lead, but the Miners rattled off the next four points to draw even at 7-7. Sam Brott delivered a pair of kills and Erika Click supplied one, and Feeney split a pair of defenders in the back row to put the Honkers back on top, but successive kills by Alexa Seda again knotted the score at 15-15.

The Honkers pulled ahead 24-19, before a Yreka hitting error ended the first game.

The second game was tied six different times, until Click powered a ball to the floor to put Willows up 21-20, and they would never give up the lead, with Hughes landing an emphatic kill to bury the Miners in a 2-0 hole.

If fate ever had a hand in helping a team to a championship, it happened in the Division IV bracket, and coach Martin didn't downplay its importance. "The stars had to be aligned," she laughed. "Wheatland took out Sutter, and Yreka took out West Valley, and we're here and we played great."

Martin admitted to not getting over-confident despite opening up such a large lead in Game 3. "After (Yreka's) big win against WV, being down two games and then coming back to win, we couldn't let up because those girls know how to recover."

Of her championship squad, she gushed, "They worked their butts off to get here and I'm just so proud of them. They came together at the exact right time they needed to, and took it to them."

For Tade, a senior, there was no better way to cap off her senior season.

"It's one of the best things that's ever happened to me sports-wise. I don't think I've ever been this happy or emotional about a sport, it was wonderful."

CONTACT Craig Purcell at 824-1036 or cpurcell@tcnpress.com.