BY RICHARD ALLAN
Among somber smiles and the supporting chant, “We still love you,” Fall River’s volleyball season came to an end Saturday night. The St. Francis Central Coast Catholic High School Sharks of Watsonville made the seven-hour trek to McArthor and defeated the Lady Bulldogs 25-22, 25-18 and 25-21 to advance to the state semifinals. “They fought hard against a very good team,” said Fall River’s coach Kelly Freeland-Sloat. “I think we played good and we tried our hardest,” said Fall River’s kill leader Kayleen Drollinger. They’re a good team. We have nothing to be ashamed of. We had an awesome season. Just to make it to the second round of the (state) playoffs is quite an accomplishment,” she added. Fall River’s usually stellar defense was just a little slow getting to balls and uncharacteristically watched balls bounce just inbounds early on. “I think that team gave us the most offense we’ve seen this year and it put us a little off kilter,” Freeland-Sloat said. “They looked like us when we were playing teams not as good as us.” They were hoping to expose the Sharks 6-foot 2-inch middle hitter Katherine Brown’s inexperience as a sophomore. No such luck. She led all hitters with 16 kills and four blocked shots. Fall River trailed throughout all three games but the no-quit Lady Bulldogs managed to close the gaps by game’s end. Down 2-0, they never quivered at the finality of needing to win three in row. They just said wanted to get the first win and go from there, Freeland-Sloat said.

The Sharks jumped out to an 18-8 lead in the final game. Fall River started to rally after Drollinger blocked Brown’s kill attempt and was followed by a Jessica Neugebauer kill. Slowly they crept closer to the Sharks, but at 24-21 the ball found the empty spot on the floor and their season was done. Drollinger finished with 10 kills and six blocks, Caitlin Royse and Neugebauer added six and five kills respectively. Kelsey Sloat had 14 assists and Lisa Senko had nine. Despite the loss, the season was a memorable one the Lady Bulldogs. They accomplished their goals of finishing 12-0 in Shasta Cascade League play and winning a section title. “It’s pretty cool. We set goals at the very beginning of the year to win league and section titles and we did that,” Drollinger said. Throughout the season the Lady Bulldogs have received a tremendous amount of support at home. The boisterous crowds that cheered, chanted and stomped the team to victory during the season remained constant through their final match. “It’s kind of nice to finish up at home in front of our fans and with our support group,” said Freeland-Sloat. “I’m so thankful and grateful to our fans. They’re so loud and fun. It was such a neat thing to play in front of them and a pleasure to coach in front of them.”