Washington seniors come through for Demons

WASHINGTON - There are nine seniors on the Washington High School volleyball team.

Hannah Anderson, Samantha Farmer, Kinsey Duwa, Alexa Mitchell, Macy Driscoll, Kaitlyn Mitchell, Olivia Pacha and Kara Poeschel are eight of them. The ninth one could not be missed as she dominated play against Columbus Thursday in a 3-1 victory.

She recorded powerful kills on four of the first five Demon points.

'I had to come out ready to play on senior night and leave it all out there,” Addison Six said. 'It is my last game at home so I had to make it count.”

Poeschel connected on a kill to cause a Columbus timeout at 15-9, but a Six kill, a Duwa ace and a Six ace got the score to 19-9. Pacha hit consecutive kills to finish the set, 25-14.

'All of our seniors played and we played really well with them,” Six said. 'They played their game and helped us a lot.”

Driscoll's kill was the first point of the second set. An Anderson block made it 12-6 and a Farmer ace gave the Demons a 19-9 lead.

The Wildcats had seen enough. A Kayla Beenen kill got Columbus within 21-15, but an Alexa Mitchell assist to Farmer finished it at 25-17.

The third set was tied at 3, 8, 10 and 11 before Beenen kills forced a Demon timeout trailing 15-11. A Jobie Lekwa ace, Michelle Diaz kill and Olivia Carrier kill gave the Wildcats a 22-14 lead and a Carrier kill finished it at 25-16.

'We made a couple adjustments to our lineup and it took the first set for them to get used to it and it finally kicked in in the third set,” Columbus coach Lori Bennen said. 'Then they got tired. They had played Powderpuff football all afternoon because this is homecoming week at Columbus. The last part of the second set we started to click and then played well.”

Farmer served the first four points of the fourth set and Anderson connected on consecutive kills for a 10-4 lead. The lead stayed at six points until Beenen called time trailing 17-11.

Six kills were three of the next five points including a hammer at 21-12, then an Anderson smash at 22-12. Kaitlyn Mitchell's ace ended the set and match at 25-14.

'Addison came ready to play and was really excited for tonight,” Demon coach Lexa Mahr said. 'She was afraid she would be emotional but she wasn't. She was extremely focused and it showed. We had decided last week we were going to play all nine seniors so we practiced it but it didn't go as well in practice as it went tonight. I think by the third set they were exhausted mentally because of all the emotion of the night. I knew they could pull it out, so I just let them play it through and then we came out hot in the fourth set.”

Mahr started as the head coach when the seniors were freshmen.

'I tell them they are my babies. It was a bittersweet moment, being the last game on our home court. It hasn't sunk in yet and I hope it doesn't for long time because our season is not over yet.”

Washington is 11-22 and starts the postseason at Pella (17-18) Wednesday while Columbus (6-22) plays Monday at Iowa City Regina (5-27).