Volleyball: Trojans top PA to end turnaround season

In what has proven to be the first season on the upswing for the Olympic volleyball squad, the Trojans went out with a bang in the final home game of the season, crushing Port Angeles 3-0 (25-23, 26-24, 25-11).

With just two seniors, the victory proved a good way to end their final season with Olympic, senior Alli Burton said.

“It feels good to win for the seniors,” Burton said. “I’m said it’s over, but we played good this year. It feels incredible.”

The Trojans, led by returning coach Keith Peden, turned around their game this season, finishing 6-8 (2-5 in Narrows League Bridge Division play), a three-game improvement over last year’s 3-11 (0-7) mark.

Peden said with just two seniors, the core of the team should continue to lead Oly upward.

“Hopefully (the win) gave them a good memory to come back to next season,” Peden said. “It’s exciting. We played with everybody this year. Every game we were in could have easily gone either way.”

Casie Knott, who along with teammate Lindsey Webel, was named to the Bridge Division honorable mention team, said a better sense of being a team is what helped the Trojans turn it around.

“We’ve improved a lot,” Knott said. “Just by working together more. We just needs to work on the little things now.”

Peden agreed, saying the Trojans have progressed extremely well this season.

“We definitely made a lot of steps,” Peden said. “I told the girls, ‘With what we have, if we can get everybody to play a consistently good game, then there’s nobody in this league we can’t beat.’”

Comparing the squad to his 1997-99 squads that appeared in districts three times and took one league title, Peden said this squad has the potential to surpass his original squad.

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