All good things must come to an end.
So it was last week for the La Conner Braves state-qualifying volleyball and girls’ soccer teams.
The La Conner spikers were swept Nov. 12 by Manson and Toledo in twin 3-0 setbacks at the Yakima SunDome while the Braves’ soccer squad was blanked 6-0 the same day at second-seeded Cle Elum-Roslyn.
Those losses ended the 2025 campaign for both La Conner squads.
Volleyball
Seeded 11th at Yakima, La Conner had a tough first round draw against No. 6 Manson, which posted a 25-11, 25-10, 25-16 triumph.
Manson’s serve-receive game was excellent throughout as La Conner was unable to notch a single ace across the three sets.
The Braves (17-9-1) had some bright spots, though.
Nora McCormick delivered eight kills, six digs and a block for La Conner. Reese Bird notched three kills, six digs and 10 assists.
Maeve McCormick contributed nine digs and five kills while Mia Delage finished with five digs, four assists and a kill.
Addie Keller collected nine digs, Julia Nelson recorded two digs and a kill, Rory Bird had a block and a dig, and Madi Larson added a dig.
La Conner seniors Isabelle Villard, Maeve McCormick, and Keller closed out their Braves’ net careers in the team’s 25-20, 25-21, 25-22 elimination round loss to Toledo.
Braves’ head coach Pam Keller lauded the impact of La Conner’s seniors afterward.
“They led by example and what the culture of La Conner volleyball is and left everything on the court in that final match,” she said.
Girls’ soccer
On the soccer pitch, Cle Elum-Roslyn (15-3-1) used a relentless attack to oust La Conner (8-8-1) from state play, a rematch of their first-round date a year ago.
Braves’ netminder Kellie Cayou-Lockrem kept La Conner within striking distance for much of the clash with several diving stops in goal.
The 2024 La Conner-Cle Elum-Roslyn pairing, won 10-0 by the hosts, was marred beforehand when a motorist experiencing an apparent medical episode slammed into the Braves’ team bus on I-405.
Freeway traffic was improved this time around, but 15th seeded La Conner knew going in that it faced a tough road advancing through a loaded state bracket featuring Cle Elum-Roslyn and Crosspoint Academy, the latter of whom dealt the Braves an 8-0 defeat on Oct. 21.
La Conner entered state action having shut out Evergreen Lutheran 1-0 on an Aisley Zimmerman goal before coming up short 1-0 to Mount Vernon Christian, which drew the No.11 seed and was eliminated by sixth-seeded Davenport.
“The girls played really hard against the No. 2 team in the state,” La Conner Middle and High School Principal/Director of Athletics Christine Tripp said of first-year head coach Leslie Swanson’s club.
La Conner seniors Yami Ocampo Contreras and Shaniquah Casey saw their final soccer action for the Braves.
Tripp praised both La Conner teams for having earned state berths.
“We’re very proud of the girls,” said Tripp. “They represented La Conner well, enjoyed solid leadership from their seniors, and we look for more good things in the future.”
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
