SportsSection B lyndentribune.com•Wednesday,November18,2015

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Good luck to all teams in the Football Playoffs! And congratulations to the L.C. Girls Volleyball team for their State Championship!

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Hollander takes third in backstroke; 400 freestyle relay team medalsBy Cameron Van Tilsports@lyndentribune.com

FEDERAL WAY — For almost any team, it would be a worthy accomplishment. But for a team that has only one club swimmer, it’s an especially impressive feat. The Lynden girls’ swim team fin-ished in 13th place at the 2A state cham-pionships on Friday and Saturday at King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. According to first-year head coach Steve Gibb — who is also a longtime coach for the Lynden boys’ team — it is likely the best finish at state either Lynden team has ever had. “It was a great accomplishment,” Gibb said. “Big drops on times all throughout the year. And even at state, the girls just kept getting faster and faster.”

KALAMA — Mount Baker senior quarterback Mason Bass ran for an eventual game-winning 35-yard touchdown with just more than three minutes left as the Mountaineers rallied from a 21-point first-quarter deficit to earn a 47-42 opening-round win over Kalama in the 1A state playoffs on Saturday night at Kalama High School. With the victory, Mount Baker (10-1) advances to its fourth consecutive state quarterfinal and will travel to face Montesano at 6 p.m. Saturday at Montesano High School. The winner will advance to the Tacoma Dome to play either King’s or Hoquiam in the follow-ing week’s semifinals. Trailing 42-40 with less than seven minutes re-maining, Mount Baker was in danger of falling behind by two scores after Kalama returned a kickoff to the Mountaineers’ seven-yard line. But Mount Baker’s defense came up with a critical stop and gave the ball back to the offense, which drove to the Kalama 35. Bass then faked a handoff to Jed Schleimer, took the ball around the right end and ran for the go-ahead

Lyncs rally for dramatic semifinal win, sweep Cedar Park Christian in final to repeat as 1A state championsBy Cameron Van Tilsports@lyndentribune.com

YAKIMA — Lynden Christian head coach Kim Grycel had gone all sea-son without mention of a repeat state championship. But with her team’s hopes of a second consecutive state title slipping away during Saturday’s 1A state semifinal match against top-ranked and undefeated Kalama, Grycel pulled the “defending champs” card from her pocket. “I gave one of my motivational talks,” Grycel said. “I was like, ‘Let’s de-fend this state title. Let’s go, right now. This is it. Let’s go all out.’” Her team dug deep and answered with a championship response. After an excruciating third-set loss that dropped LC into a 2-1 hole and a slow start to the fourth frame that placed the Lyncs’ title aspirations in se-

rious jeopardy, LC rallied to win the final two sets and earn a 17-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-19, 15-9 semifinal victory over Kalama on Saturday afternoon in the Yakima Valley SunDome. The dramatic, hard-earned win left players and coaches alike with tears in their eyes and propelled the Lyncs to their second consecutive state title, which they earned later that evening with a 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 sweep of district rival Cedar Park Christian. “It was an amazing feeling,” senior setter Carli Tjoelker said. “You can’t really put it into words. We knew going in that we had an awesome team, and actually achieving the goal that we had was pretty incredible to be able to do.” Until last season — despite 18 consecutive trips to the state tourna-ment — the LC volleyball program had never won a state championship. Now the Lyncs have won two in a row. “I waited 19 years to see it,” Grycel said as her players celebrated the title with family and friends on the court. “And it feels just as good the sec-ond time as it did the first.” Entering Yakima as district champions for the first time since 2009, LC

prep volleyball

BACK-TO-BACK CHAMPS

The Lynden Christian volleyball team celebrated its second consecutive 1A state championship after sweeping district rival Cedar Park Christian in the title match on Saturday night in the Yakima Valley SunDome.(CameronVanTil/LyndenTribune)

ChampionshipLC def. Cedar Park Christian

25-20, 25-19, 25-21

SemifinalLC def. Kalama

17-25, 25-22, 26-28, 25-19, 15-9

QuarterfinalLC def. Columbia (Burbank)

25-17, 25-19, 25-22

opening roundLC def. Montesano 25-11, 25-11, 25-15

See Back-to-back champsonB2

prep football

Mountaineers rally, earn fourth straight quarterfinal berth

See Football onB4

prep girlS Swimming

Lynden places 13th at state meet

Lynden senior Sarah Hollander placed third in the 100-meter backstroke and seventh in the 500-meter freestyle at the 2A state championships. She also helped Lynden’s 400-meter freestyle relay team earn a seventh-place medal (above).(CameronVanTil/LyndenTribune)See SwimonB3

B2 • Wednesday, November 18, 2015 • lyndentribune.com

Congratulations Lynden Christian Girls Volleyball Team!

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(20-2) swept Montesano and Columbia (Burbank) in Friday’s first two rounds to cruise into Saturday’s heavyweight semifi-nal showdown against Kalama. It was there that the Lyncs’ biggest star shined her bright-est. LC senior outside hitter and University of Washington commit Kara Bajema broke a school record with 51 kills in the match, aided by a school-record 69 assists from senior setter Carli Tjoelker. “She was solid all weekend long,” Grycel said of Bajema, who pounded out 118 kills over the four tournament matches. “But in the Kalama match, she

just took it to a another level. “She just was going kill af-ter kill. That was just exciting to see, because they just couldn’t stop her. She was so tough.” Bajema’s success, however, was the product of a true team effort, highlighted by Tjoelker’s precision passing and senior outside Hannah Rusnak’s 16 kills, 18 digs and six aces. “The other girls did all the things right,” Grycel said. “ They got the blocks, digs and sets to help her do that.” And together, they rallied to fend off a Kalama team that had the Lyncs on the ropes. Kalama began the match as the sharper team, winning the opening set with offensive pre-cision and by taking advantage

of a number of LC errors. The Lyncs responded in the second set, building a 17-10 lead and withstanding a late Kalama charge to win the frame and even the match. In a dramatic, back-and-forth third set, LC fought off three consecutive game points to tie the match at 26, but Ka-lama followed with two straight points to win the set and drop the Lyncs into a 2-1 hole. With her team’s backs against the wall, Grycel made her “defending champs” speech. “She said, ‘Just go for it and put it all out there, because you guys can do it,’” Tjoelker said. But LC quickly fell into a 5-0 deficit to begin the fourth set, prompting a timeout by Grycel, during which she re-iterated her point. Soon after, the Lyncs rattled off six straight points to take a 10-9 lead. LC never trailed again. The Lyncs scored the final three points of the frame to pull away for a 25-19 win and force a deciding fifth set, where they continued their momentum by racing to a 6-0 lead. Kalama fought back to cut its deficit to 11-8, but LC won four of the final five points to earn the semifinal victory and place itself on the precipice of another state championship. “It was really emotional be-cause we had to come back so

many times,” Tjoelker said. “But everyone really just gave it their all and a lot of girls stepped up.” Grycel praised Rusnak in particular, calling her the team’s “secret weapon.” “I can’t say enough about Hannah,” Grycel said. “She was in the back row making digs so that Kara can get those kills. Hannah was frustrated early, but she just came back so tough and so money in that fifth

game.” Grycel also credited Tjoelk-er and junior libero Emmalee Bailey for the leadership they demonstrated in the heat of ad-versity. “They were so positive and still believing that we could do it — providing that for us when we were starting to doubt our-selves,” Grycel said.

Back-to-back champs: Bajema, Tjoelker set program recordsContinued from B1

LC senior setter Carli Tjoelker (above) and sophomore middle hitter Riley Van Hulzen (below) go up for blocks. (Cameron Van Til/Lynden Tribune)

LC players and coaches celebrate the team’s semifinal victory over Kalama. (Cameron Van Til/Lynden Tribune)

LC junior outside hitter Hannah Rusnak was an all-around force who head coach Kim Grycel termed the team’s “secret weapon.” (Cameron Van Til/Lynden Tribune)

Record breakersA pair of school match

records were set in LC’s semifinal win.

Kara Bajema51 kills

Carli Tjoelker 69 assists

See Lyncs on B3

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 • lyndentribune.com • B3

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Leading the way was senior Sarah Hollander, a longtime member of the Bellingham Bay club team, who broke several Lynden girls’ records this season. Hollander medaled in a pair of individual events, finishing in third place in the 100-meter backstroke with a time of 1:00.11 and placing seventh in the 500-meter freestyle (5:24.59). Both Hollander and Gibb said that fatigue resulted in a

slightly slower finish in the 500 freestyle than expected, as she placed fifth in the event during Friday’s preliminaries. But on the contrary, her third-place finish in the backstroke was a pleasant surprise after a fourth-place finish in the prelimi-naries. “I wasn’t expecting third in the backstroke,” Hollander said. “Of course it’s a goal to place high at state, but I barely out-touched the (other) girls, so I didn’t think that I had gotten third. But I did.”

Hollander also led a team of four seniors in the 400-meter freestyle relay, helping the team finish their high school swim-ming careers with a seventh-place medal. The team of Shelby DeWaard, Hollander, Jadyn Elias and Annie Uribe recorded the third-best time in the event in program history (3:58.06). “That was really awesome,” Hollander said. “You kind of just get this mentality in your head that this is (your) last high school

2015 Lyncs2 Emmalee Bailey

3 Carli Tjoelker

4 Kelsie Otter

5 Avery Dykstra

6 Sofia Fransen

7 Brooke Nordstrom

8 Reghan Thomas

9 Caitlin Burrows

10 Riley Van Hulzen

11 Torina Hommes

12 Meredith Knapp

13 Gracelyn Weg

14 Hannah Rusnak

15 Kara Bajema

Swim: Seniors on 400 relay team finish careers with medalContinued from B1

See Swim on B4

Left: Annie Uribe helped Lynden take seventh place in the 400 freestyle relay. Right: Jadyn Elias and the 200 freestyle relay team placed 15th. (Cameron Van Til/Lynden Tribune)

And with a dominant fifth-set performance, LC overcame its previ-ous late-match struggles. The Lyncs had played in only two five-set contests all season, and lost both. They were determined not to let it happen again. “We’ve been doing this drill these last two weeks about winning game five and minimizing our errors,” Gry-cel said. “We were not going to lose another game five.” LC made sure of that, and then followed up its strong semifinal finish with a wire-to-wire performance in the championship match, leading for nearly the entire contest. Bajema recorded 26 kills, Tjo-elker tallied 37 assists, Rusnak added 17 kills and Bailey came up with nine digs to help minimize some of the damage from Cedar Park Christian’s dangerous 6-3 outside hitter Sam Dreschel. “That kind of turned the game for us, I thought,” Grycel said of Bai-ley’s defensive performance.

Bailey is one of a handful of play-ers whose development this season was integral to the Lyncs’ success. LC had lost a stellar class of seven seniors from the previous year’s state cham-pionship team, most notably setter Madison Weg, middle hitter Morgan Van Kooten and libero Emily Veening. But players such as Bailey; soph-

omores Riley Van Hulzen, Avery Dyk-stra and Meredith Knapp; and fresh-men Torina Hommes and Kelsie Otter helped fill the void with impressive growth throughout the season. “To lose seven great seniors, if you’d have told me a year ago that we’d repeat as back-to-back champi-ons, I don’t know if I would have be-

lieved you,” Grycel said. “So the credit goes to my youngsters. “Even in this (state title) game, they came up big with some big blocks, some big digs and some hits out of the middle.” Grycel said the credit also goes to the team’s two captains, Bajema and Tjoelker, for all the help they provid-ed the underclassmen along the way. For Bajema, it was something she enjoyed. “It was really cool,” the star se-nior said of the progress and con-tributions her younger teammates made. “They picked up right away and we started clicking. It was really fun to see them improve the whole year.” And for Bajema, the challenge of trying to combat losing seven seniors was something she embraced. “People doubted us in the be-ginning,” Bajema said. “They didn’t know how far we could get. I think that was the coolest part — proving people wrong.” As for LC’s four seniors — Ba-jema, Tjoelker, Brooke Nordstrom and Reghan Thomas — what was it like to end their high school careers with back-to-back titles? That’s hard

to beat, Tjoelker said. “It’s really special,” she said. “It’s a really cool dream that we got to ac-complish, and as a team it was really special to see how far we could go.”

LyncsContinued from B2

Kara Bajema was dominant in Yakima. (Cameron Van Til/Lynden Tribune)