Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2009

A sound you don't want to hear

It was a frightening sound.

Not one you normally hear at a sporting event.

It was the middle of the fourth set of a riveting CBBN volleyball match between Kamiakin and Southridge. The Braves had taken the first two sets, and as I expected, the Suns weren't about to get swept on their home court. They took the third set, roared out to an 8-1 lead in the fourth, only to watch Kamiakin rally to tie the set at 14 apiece.

Isabella Midili served for the Suns, and Kristi Beyer went up to try a crosscourt kill for Kamiakin but sent the ball wide.

I looked down to write the result of the point when I heard this shriek pierce through the crowd noise. My first thought was, Who in the crowd made that sound? as I finished writing and looked up to scan the bleachers on the far side of the gym.

Then I saw the Kamiakin coaches scrambling toward the court, and I knew.

It wasn't the excited cry of a fan watching a great match.

It was the anguished cry of an athlete in extreme pain.

Beyer had landed, and her left knee buckled.

Just like that, the match turned in Southridge's favor in the worst way imaginable.

"You hate to see that," said Suns senior Heather Worley. "She's such a good player, such a big part of their team. But we knew we had to take advantage."

And take advantage they did.

Southridge scored 25 of the match's final 33 points. The Braves, who had only seven hitting errors in the first three sets, sprayed the ball around like a faulty sprinkler down the stretch with 10 hitting errors in the final two sets.

Kamiakin didn't want to use Beyer's injury as an excuse.

But senior Kailee Dunn acknowledged it was a punch to the team's collective gut.

"I guess the motivation, the enthusiasm, the adrenaline between the sides switched," she said. "We started to play more and more tense."

And so just like that, Kamiakin falls from potentially the No. 1 district seed and getting to host the second day of the tournament ... to the No. 4 seed, getting a dangerous Walla Walla team in the first round, then squaring off with (most likely) Richland in the semifinals.

But that's all secondary at the moment.

All I hope for now is that Beyer's shriek was just of surprise, and not of a season -- and a career -- ending too soon.

Til next time ...