The La Conner Braves volleyball and girls’ soccer teams are on the road again.
The two La Conner High sports programs earned respective state tournament berths — and lengthy road trips — by surviving key bi-district matches last week.
The La Conner spikers had three high-level playoff tests, defeating Orcas Island and splitting two pairings with Mount Vernon Christian, including a hard-fought 3-1 state seeding setback at Coupeville Saturday afternoon.
The Braves’ booters, meanwhile, blanked Evergreen Lutheran 1-0 in Puyallup Nov. 3 on an Aisley Zimmerman goal before being edged by the same 1-0 margin in a Nov. 4 state seeding clash against Mount Vernon Christian in Sedro-Woolley.
Both La Conner teams learned their state tourney destinations on Sunday.
After downing Evergreen Lutheran and falling to Mount Vernon Christian, the Braves’ soccer squad was seeded 15th out of 16 state entries. La Conner (8-7-1) drew No. 2 seed Cle Elum-Roslyn (14-3-1), a rematch of the Braves’ state game a year ago. Their 2025 pairing was set for 5 p.m. Wednesday in Cle Elum.
The Braves’ netters (17-8-1) were assigned the 11th seed in their tourney and scheduled to open state action opposite sixth-seeded Manson (16-6) at 9:45 a.m. Wednesday at the Yakima SunDome.
The La Conner volleyballers advanced to Yakima after treating home fans to dramatic back-to-back bi-district triumphs over Mount Vernon Christian on Nov. 4 and Orcas on Nov. 6 at Landy James Gym before moving on to the weekend seeding round at Coupeville.
In the home playoff match over Mount Vernon Christian, La Conner parlayed superb serving, strong defense, and solid frontline play to post an 18-25, 25-23, 15-11 win in a best two-of-three encounter.
The Braves trailed 3-1 in the second set when Mount Vernon Christian’s Eva Kilvert notched a kill. La Conner quickly regrouped with successive kills by Nora McCormick and Maeve McCormick, the latter point made possible by a rally-saving dig from Julia Nelson.
The two teams traded leads until Reese Bird and Madi Larson boomed kills for La Conner, giving the Braves a 23-20 edge. Nora McCormick then closed out the set with a kill and a block.
In the decisive third set, La Conner — playing perhaps its best volleyball of the season — bolted to an early 7-0 advantage courtesy of kills by Nora McCormick, a kill and block from Nelson, and an Addie Keller service ace.
Mount Vernon Christian, true to its Hurricanes moniker, stormed back. The visitors reeled off seven straight points to forge an 8-8 tie before La Conner regained control on a Nelson kill. Maeve McCormick followed with three kills and a block while Nelson served out the set.
La Conner picked up where it left off two nights later, sweeping Orcas Island in three sets, a match much closer than the 3-0 score indicates. The final ledger read 25-17, 25-19, 25-23 in La Conner’s favor with the Braves overcoming a 14-7 deficit in the third set.
The Braves finished strong in the clinching frame as Maeve McCormick delivered three crucial kills, and Nora McCormick and Reese Bird ripped one spike apiece down the stretch.
Rory Bird logged a kill, Larson registered a block, Keller chipped in eight digs, Isabelle Villard had two kills and a dig and Mia Delage recorded an assist as La Conner head coach Pam Keller and assistant Kamea Luna received contributions from their entire roster.
“I feel like we’ve found our rhythm,” coach Keller said after the Orcas match. “This team has truly become a family and I’m so proud of them.
“I push serving tough, and in high pressure situations, a lot in my practices,” she added. “We focus on keeping teams out of sync as much as possible.”
At Coupeville, Mount Vernon Christian avenged its prior loss to La Conner in a match where both clubs were assured state bids.
On the soccer pitch, La Conner and Evergreen Lutheran were somewhat in the dark for the latter stages of the nighttime match.
“The lights, for some reason, didn’t come on for part of the field,” La Conner head coach Leslie Swanson noted of the tense match, which eliminated Evergreen Lutheran from state contention.
Fortunately for La Conner, Zimmerman’s goal was the bright shining moment that the Braves needed to join the state playoff field.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
