Young volleyball team gained experience at summer tournament

By Oliver Lazenby

The girls’ Borderite varsity volleyball team is young, but head coach Bryan Clausen is confident that it will be one of the best teams in his tenure.

“The teams have been improving every year since I started,” he said. “This is my fourth year here and I think this will be our best yet.”

Six senior players graduated last year, and this year’s team has just two seniors. But the team is tall and has the potential to do well on offense and blocking. Their skills were “growing rapidly” during the first week of practice, Clausen said.

Though they are young, the squad has more experience playing together than previous teams. For the first time this summer, Clausen took this squad to Volleyball Festival, a four-day tournament in Arizona that included girls’ teams from all over North America and Brazil.

The Blaine team played in the U-18 bracket, against teams that were majority high school seniors, Clausen said. The Blaine girls held their own, finishing 31st out of 80 teams.

The team’s captains are senior Lauren Kordas and juniors Josie Deming and Alexis Hallberg.

Last year’s team had a 3–9 record in conference games and a 4–10 record overall.

The Borderites start their season with a jamboree at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 6 at Meridian High School. Their first home game is at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 13 against Sedro-Woolley.