Not surprisingly considering they finished first and second ahead of their 4A league foes, Southridge and Kamiakin advanced to the state tournament at the 3A classification.
Southridge blanked Mt Spokane in the regional final 3-0 with Cyd Sanders tallying a goal and assist in the victory. Tiara Valadez recorded her seventh shutout of the campaign.
Kamiakin posted similarly dominant results with a 2-0 win over North Central in which Heather Donais notched a goal and assist.
Her fantastic season continued in the Braves' 3-0 win over Mt Spokane for the second berth from the region, setting up the first and third goals and scoring the second herself, bringing her season tallies to 14 goals and 11 assists thus far. Rachel McClure registered her first two complete game shutouts of the year after sharing time with Grace Wilbur much of the season for Kamiakin, which now boasts 13 shutouts.
The Titans fell behind at Richland, but rallied to the lead with goals from Julia Adair and Kelsey Crosby. Richland equalized before the break, but Adair added a second goal from the spot for the win in the 77th.
Adair came up big again against the Bullpups with the opening goal in the 63rd, but Larkin Russell saved Gonzaga Prep from the upset with a 71st minute answer. Adair's three goals in two games doubled her tally for the season while Russell's goal was her ninth.
In the regional final, it was a case of deja vu for Gonzaga Prep as the match went scoreless and they needed penalties to decide the outcome for the third time in four playoff matches. Penalties were not nearly enough either as they two sides needed 10 rounds to settle things, the Bullpups claiming the title 8-7. The scoreless draw gave Gonzaga Prep's Zoe Boleneus her fourth clean sheet of the year while it was the sixth for Chiawana's Cottrell.
The consolation match with a third berth up for grabs pitted GSL foes against one another yet again and Ferris made their previous 2-1 district playoff win stand up with a 2-0 victory to advance to state. University had won the regular season contest 2-1. Bria Bowton and Sydney Clements each registered a goal and assist in the second half for the regional win.
Meanwhile in the 4A playoffs out of the Columbia Basin Big Nine things continued to be a bit interesting. Having previously eliminated fourth-seeded Moses Lake, fifth-seeded Davis knocked third-seeded Eastmont out of the postseason with a 2-1 victory before their run came to an end in the battle for the second state berth against second-seeded Wenatchee, which had been handily beaten 5-0 in the regional final by West Valley.
Things were a lot more simple in the 1A class where the seeding played out largely as expected. Having finished as part of a three-way tie for second in the Northeast A League, it was no surprise really that third-seeded Freeman advanced against second-seeded Lakeside, but the two battled to a 1-1 stalemate that needed penalties to determine the outcome. Freeman took the tiebreaker 4-1 to set up a showdown with Deer Park, which squeaked by Riverside, the other team in the three-way tie, with a 1-0 decision in the semifinal on a goal from Jessie Thomas as league-leading scorer Riley Martinson was shutout for only the second time this season. Thomas played a key role again in the district final, tallying the opening goal in the second half and setting up Martinson for the other.
Both moved on to face the third and fourth seeds out of the Central Washington Athletic Conference, where the top two (Ellensburg & Prosser, respectively) from that district playoff automatically advanced to the state tournament. The GNL duo swept the regional play-in contests to advance to the state tournament, where they will face the top two from the CWAC in the first round.
The Knights dominated fourth-seed Ephrata, the fifth-place finishers in the CWAC, with a 5-0 drubbing. Skylar Bastin pushed her GNL-leading goal total to 11 with a pair of tallies in the second half. Chloe Gellhaus also played a big role with the opening strike and an assist and Kari Bromley registered her eighth shutout. Clarkston moved on with Taylen Wohl and Makinzie Packwood each registering a goal and assist in the first half en route to a 2-1 victory over East Valley of Yakima.
STATE TOURNAMENT BRACKETS
STATE TOURNAMENT MATCHES
Tuesday, November 10
4A - Wenatchee @ Bellarmine Prep 7:00
4A - Todd Beamer @ Gonzaga Prep 7:00
4A - Ferris @ Chiawana 5:00
3A - Holy Names @ Kamiakin 5:00
3A - Auburn Riverside @ Southridge 5:00
1A - Naches Valley @ Deer Park 5:00
1A - Freeman @ Cascade 5:30
Wednesday, November 11
4A - Puyallup @ West Valley (Yakima) 6:00
2A - Prosser @ East Valley 5:00
2A - Clarkston @ Ellensburg 1:30
If you have any updates for stats (particularly assists that go unrecorded for road games), please drop INWsn a note at snaeditor-at-gmail.com. INWsn is currently missing scoring (and GK) information for 10.23 Rogers @ LC, 10/15 Moses Lake @ Eastmont, 10/13 Eastmont @ Eisenhower, 10/3 Pasco @ Walla Walla and 9.24 Medical Lake @ Newport games.
STATISTICAL LEADERS - SPOKANE AREA LEAGUES
STAT LEADERS - CENTRAL / SOUTHERN AREA LEAGUES
-- INWsn --
