Root beer has mostly given way to orange soda for Michael Christiansen.<\/p>\n
But the Kent-Meridian volleyball coach couldn\u2019t be any happier with the change in soft drinks. It simply means the Royals are winning. Drinking an orange soda after victories has become tradition for Christiansen. And root beer?<\/p>\n
Well, that comes after defeat.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou never do get sick of orange soda,\u201d said a smiling Christiansen, Kent-Meridian\u2019s enthusiastic and energetic third-year coach. \u201cYou get sick of root beer, but you never get sick of the orange soda.\u201d<\/p>\n
Indeed.<\/p>\n
And with the quick and steady rate of success the Royals have enjoyed this season, Christiansen might just be finding himself buying stock in Orange Crush by the end of November. That\u2019s because just five matches into their South Puget Sound League North Division schedule, the Royals already had clinched a playoff berth.<\/p>\n
To put it in perspective, Kent-Meridian hasn\u2019t made the playoffs in volleyball \u2014 nor even been very close \u2014 since 2001. Between 2002 and 2007, the Royals managed a grand total of 11 league wins.<\/p>\n
This year?<\/p>\n
The Royals entered play Tuesday night against second-ranked Kentwood with a perfect 5-0 league record.<\/p>\n
The key is a simple change in mentality and focus, Christiansen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s easy to focus on the losing and to talk about the losing,\u201d Christiansen said. \u201cMy mentality always has been, you\u2019ve got to move forward. If you want to get better, you have to put the effort in.\u201d<\/p>\n
And though the Royals were unable to knock off Kentwood, falling in three games (25-13, 25-14, 25-11), it\u2019s clear the program has turned the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey run more offense. They get the ball at you with more pressure,\u201d Kentwood coach Bil Caillier said. \u201cThey\u2019re a different team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with the wins and the playoff berth, several K-M players have found themselves among the league leaders.<\/p>\n
Senior setter Davina Fuiava ranks third in the North in aces per game (0.79) and is second in kill percentage (37.9). Senior outside hitter McKaley Brewer ranks first in the league in serving percentage (99.3) while sophomore sensation Cherene O\u2019Hara is second in the league in stuffs per game (1.06).<\/p>\n
\u201cPlayers are starting to get more serious about the game and we\u2019ve developed better skills than we had before,\u201d said Brewer, who\u2019s in her fourth year on the varsity program. \u201cBefore, we also had a lot of different coaches in and out of the program. Now (under Christiansen) we\u2019ve built up this big family community of girls who are all here to win and work hard.\u201d<\/p>\n
Numbers also have helped.<\/p>\n
In Christiansen\u2019s first year with the program, roughly 30 players turned out.<\/p>\n
When practice rolled around at the beginning of this year, the coach estimates he had between 60 and 70 players.<\/p>\n
Coupled with Christiansen\u2019s unrelenting glass-half-full approach, the Royals have turned the corner.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were tired of losing,\u201d Fuiava said. \u201cAll of us as a team … we just stopped talking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n
And, in the process, have helped Christiansen get his fill of orange soda.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Root beer has mostly given way to orange soda for Michael Christiansen.
\nBut the Kent-Meridian volleyball coach couldn\u2019t be any happier with the change in soft drinks. It simply means the Royals are winning. Drinking an orange soda after victories has become tradition for Christiansen. And root beer?
\nWell, that comes after defeat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":14709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-14708","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14708"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14708"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14708"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=14708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}