The Edmonds-Woodway Warriors showed both a physical and mental toughness in their opening match of the 2024 District 1 volleyball tournament on Tuesday with a come-from-behind five-set victory over Shorewood. 

But on Thursday, the Warriors couldn’t muster up a repeat performance against a much stronger opponent.

E-W, unable to capitalize on a golden opportunity to win the second set, fell to the tournament’s no.2 seed Snohomish Panthers 3-0 (25-19, 26-24, 25-8) in a District tourney semifinal match played at Stanwood High School

With the defeat, the no.3-seeded Warriors (1-1 in district play, 15-4 overall) will need a victory in their final district tournament match on Saturday in order to qualify for the WIAA 3A State Volleyball Tournament in Yakima later this month.

E-W could have secured their spot at state with a win over Snohomish but struggled to build any offensive attack against the crafty Panthers.

“The game’s about pressure. So credit Snohomish; they were the ones applying the pressure,” said Warriors’ Coach Bart Foley. “We were out of system because their serving was tough. And they were, conversely, attacking always.”

The Panthers jumped out to an 8-2 lead and captured the first set 25-19. But E-W looked to win the second set before collapsing in the final stretch.

Foley admitted that second set loss was a game changer. 

“That was tough,” Foley said. “We were up 24-20 and gave up six straight points. I was out of timeouts; there wasn’t a lot I could do.”

The Warriors never seemed to recover from their devastating setback at the end of the second set. Snohomish (2-0 in district play, 13-5 overall) rolled to a 25-8 third set win and swept the semifinal match 3-0.

Foley said he would take lessons learned from Thursday’s loss — just the fourth defeat the Warriors have suffered this year — and try to rally his squad for their big winner-to-state, loser-out district tourney match on Saturday morning.

“We have no other choice but to regroup,” Foley noted. “We’re going to look at film. We know we’re playing Ferndale. We’ll look at film on us because we need to do that. We’ll look at film on Ferndale and we’ll get ready for Saturday at 11 a.m.”

Foley stressed that while Thursday’s loss was gut wrenching, it was just one game that he hopes will soon be a distant memory.

“We just need to learn from it and flush it and then regroup to play on Saturday,” Foley added. “And if we win on Saturday, all of this will be forgotten.”

You can view the entire District 1 3A Volleyball Tournament brackets here. 

Prep Volleyball: Edmonds-Woodway vs. Snohomish, Nov. 14 (District 1 3A Volleyball Tournament semifinal match)

Snohomish 3 – Edmonds-Woodway 0 (25-19. 26-24, 25-8)

Records: Edmonds-Woodway 1-1 in District 1 3A Volleyball Tournament, 15-4 overall; Snohomish 2-0 in District 1 3A Volleyball Tournament, 13-5 overall

Edmonds-Woodway next match: versus Ferndale; Saturday, Nov. 14; 11 a.m. at Stanwood High School (District 1 3A Volleyball Tournament winner-to-state, loser-out match)

Snohomish next match: versus Lynnwood; Saturday, Nov. 14; 2 p.m. at Stanwood High School (District 1 3A Volleyball Tournament championship match)

— Story and photos by Doug Petrowski