By Gerardo Bolong
CONTRIBUTING WRITER

TACOMA - And it came to pass that a season full of obstacles and recuperative resiliency finally came to end on the floor of Dalesky- Black court at Foss High School in a 34-26 fourth round West Central District 1A girls loser-out, winner-to state loss to Bellevue Christian on Sat., Feb. 21.

Seattle Christian closed out with a season record of 17-7 in its return to playoff action after a short absence.

"Welcome back to the playoffs," said Warrior head coach Dave Jansen. "It was awesome and the young players now know the experience. This is one step in the process. This team played all the way to the end."
Although the Warriors lose stellar seniors Taelor Willhoite, Jessalyn Henry, Ashley Schroder and Madelyn Weber, the future looks bright for youngsters like Alexandria Ellis and Kelli Ronish who were starters and the many other non seniors who saw considerable court action, including postseason play.

Due to frigid shooting against their opponents' rock ribbed, energy-draining defense, the Lady Warriors inhabited an abysmal crater, trailing 32-21 with just less than three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter before making a final stand.

Ellis got free for a 3-pointer ahead of a Viking double dribble. Weber cashed in for a field goal and Seattle Christian still had hope at 32-26 with two minutes showing.

While the players continued to collide like moving billiard balls, Bellevue Christian was keeping Seattle Christian in the game with a 2 of 5 free throw shooting performances in these waning minutes.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, they were unable to capitalize in the season's last hurrah.

Defenses dominated the early action until Madisen Fors grabbed one of her game total of five rebounds and put the ball in for an 8-7 SCS lead after one quarter.

Another Ellis 3-point goal with just more than four minutes left in the second quarter had the Warriors up 12-9, but the Lady Vikings responded with seven consecutive points, beginning with a Rachel Berg 3-point goal.

Seattle Christian kept forcing ill-advised passes inside, although Weber's field goal brought Seattle Christian within 16-14 at the break.

For the first half, the Warriors shot 2 of 15 from standard field goal range, but shot even worse in the second half (2 of 22, 9.09 percent).

In the face of such obstacles, SCS kept plugging away. Lack of a consistent offensive flow in the third quarter translated into a dead zone of scoring for the Warriors.

Seattle Christian trailed by as much as 12 points at 28-16 leading into what would be the Warriors' last quarter of this season.

Leading the Warriors was Ellis, who scored 11 points under tight guarding. Completing her Seattle Christian basketball career, Weber scored seven points with 11 rebounds and four steals.

Abby Louie scored three points ahead of Willhoite who had two points, five rebounds and two steals. Jessa Henry earned one point and two steals.

Makenzie May did not score, but stole the ball four times and grabbed three rebounds.

Seattle Christian forced 23 turnovers.

Emily Vandenbrink scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds for Bellevue Christian as Berg tallied eight points and four boards. Kathleen Crosby scored three points, but totaled seven rebounds.

From the injury ridden days of dark December during which players would return only to see other players go out, the Lady Warriors kept giving it their best during times when the lineups were based on who was available and healthy.

Seattle Christian kept toiling and giving its best and finally started pulling it together,

The situation still looked rugged when the team stood at 1-3 in Nisqually League 1A play and the necessity of winning 3 of 4 games in the stretch run just to get into the district action where Madelyn Weber worked her way through a dislocated right pinkie finger while the entire team rallied to the cause.

"There were a lot of highs and lows," recalled assistant coach Kara Kogle. "It was a time of players being part of a team and family. At the end, they should all hold their heads up high."

Seattle Christian's district roster included Carlee Ronish (10), Madelyn Weber (12), Kelli Ronish (10), Jessalyn Henry (12), Abby Louie (11), Taelor Willhoite (12), Alexandria Ellis (9), Makenzie May (10), Ashley Schroder (12), Madisen Fors (9), Naomi Knipp (9) and Julia Seibel (9).

Assisting head coach Dave Jansen were Casey Ribera, Roy Fisher and Kara Kogle.
Craig Wrolstad.

Managers were Natalie Vittitow, Mikayla Brotton and Brandon Merdich..