Travel information for Mount Si volleyball fans making the trek to the Tri-Cities

For the second straight year, we offer Mount Si volleyball fans some information that they will need to know before they head over to the Tri-Cities to watch the state volleyball tournament Friday and Saturday. So let's get to the skinny.

About the event:

-The tournament is being held at the Toyota Center arena in Kennewick, right near Columbia Center Mall on the west side of town. This arena is home to the Tri-City Americans hockey team.

-To get there from the Valley, you will want to get on I-90 in North Bend and head over the pass to Ellensburg. At Ellensburg, I-90 intersects with I-82 (exit #110). Exit onto I-82 going south towards Yakima. Head down I-82 through Yakima and east through the Yakima Valley until you reach the Tri-Cities. At exit #102 is the intersection for I-182, which is a spur freeway linking I-82 with the Tri-Cities. Take this exit and follow I-182 east to the SR 240 interchange, and exit going south. Follow SR 240 to the Columbia Center Blvd. exit - this is the exit going to the mall, and take this exit. Turn right onto Columbia Center Blvd. and follow south to Quinault Ave. Turn left on Quinault and follow that road to a traffic circle. In front of you at this traffic circle is the arena, turn right off this traffic circle and follow to the parking lot entrance which is on the left. Parking is free. Total trip time is about 3 hours, and will be longer if there is snow in the passes, so take the chains.

-The first match is scheduled for 2:00 pm Friday, so fans will be able to leave Friday morning and make it in time. As it is, just because it says it's at 2:00 doesn't mean it will start at 2:00. It will start 20 minutes or so after the completion of the previous match on that court, so if matches are running long, chances are it will be later on in the day. The WIAA only has scheduled 90 minute blocks for each match, so if a match runs four or five sets, it will run over this time. This match for your information is scheduled for court #1, which is at the end of the arena (which end that is we have no clue.) What this means is that there will be seating at both ends and along one side of the court, and we would suggest the side seating because there is a super view from there of the proceedings. We should know because when we were there in 2007, we sat there and it was a heckuva view.

-Tickets will cost $9 for the day, $15 for both days for adults. Get the both days pass, you will want that one for sure. $7 for the day, $10 for both days for students. Tickets can be purchased at the walk-up window at the main entrance to the arena.

-There are several hotels within short distances of the arena; these include a Hilton Garden Inn, a Red Lion, a Comfort Inn and a Fairfield Inn. We are not sure where Mount Si will be staying, but each of the past two years they have stayed at the Red Lion hotel, which we have linked here. If this link does not work - google "Red Lion Hotels" and it should give you a link to the official Red Lion website, there punch Kennewick, Washington, in the search box and you should be ready to go. They're charging $119 online for rooms, you may want to call over there and check on the rates that way as well, their number is (509) 783-0611.

We don't know if Mount Si will be staying there again, but chances are they will, so this would be a good place to check on rooms. Get them early since they fill up fast. The Comfort Inn and Quality Inn hotels just down Quinault are a bit less expensive so if you're more budget conscious, those would be good places to look. For more info here's a link to the Tri-Cities visitors bureau. It would be wise to book Friday and Saturday nights if possible due to the long driving distance and the possible weather issues across the pass. And there's also the fact that Mount Si could be in a placing game and those don't start until late on Saturday.

-All of these hotels are also within walking distance of the Columbia Center Mall, which is owned by Simon, the same people who own North Bend's factory outlet mall. This blogger made a stop in there on some down time during the 2007 event, and we can say it's a nice mall, similar in size and store selection to maybe Capital Mall in Olympia. The Columbia Center Mall includes a Sears, Penney's, Barnes & Noble, Macy's, Toys 'R' Us and a movie theater. There is a food court inside the mall which includes an Ivar's, DQ, Cinnabon and Sbarro Pizza. There are a number of sit-down places in and around the mall, these include an Old Country Buffet, Red Lobster and Red Robin. The Red Lion hotel which we mentioned before also has a sit-down restaurant as well.

-There are concessions at the arena, but these are a bit limited and a bit pricey so if you can avoid these, your wallet will be happy you did. Tournament souvenirs will also be available there as well, you may want to spend your $$ this way.

-Note that whatever hotel you stay at, chances are there will be at least one or two teams who will be there as well. All of the 2A, 3A and 4A teams will be competing in their respective tournaments there, meaning a lot of potentially loud teenage girls in their rooms late at night, maybe next to yours. Be aware of this if you are an early sleeper. Mount Si was mixed up in an incident during the 2007 event where a guest at the hotel not affiliated with the event (and ostensibly not aware of what goes on when you have a big youth tournament in town) got upset with loud girls next door; Mount Si players, in the hallway, tried to quiet those girls but the guest blamed the Mount Si kids for the noise. So be aware, please, and be understanding.

-And one last thing: All of you who go, whether you are students, parents, or just regular fans, are representing your community at this event. Show class inside and outside the arena and behave yourselves. The last thing we want to report in the Valley Record is an incident involving the Mount Si team or fans which reflects negatively on our community. Mount Si won a sportsmanship award at the 2007 event which was one of a very few awarded during the event to an entire fan section; let's do this again in 2009.

Hope you enjoy the read, and hope you enjoy the trip there.

Monday cooler and nuggets.....

On the cooler today:

-Out of Rhode Island there's an investigation going on into a pair of incidents which occured at the end of the state division championship girls' soccer game between Tolman and Woonsocket high schools, see story here from the Providence Journal. WPRI-TV, a local station in Providence, was at the game and got the film of both incidents, first a fight between players on the field then afterwards, during a postgame award ceremony, a fight between fans from the opposing teams. The Journal reports that there may be suspensions of no fewer five games for each player involved in the incident. On the heels of the Elizabeth Lambert college controversy, violence in girls' soccer now is a big issue, and this only adds to that. Discuss.

-Also, we have a story from Yahoo here, talking about a study claiming high school sports participation doesn't entirely keep kids from making bad choices about drugs/alcohol/etc.

And we have some huge news from Bellingham, where a local college soccer star has found his way onto the postseason awards list. Western Washington men's soccer player Gibson Bardsley, from Fall City, was named to the GNAC men's soccer second team, in results of balloting announced today by the conference at their headquarters in Spokane. Good job Gibbie.

We will have some travel info for the state volleyball tournament in Kennewick this weekend shortly so if you will be making the trek across, you need to read this.

Polls...

Look at right we have some polls for you, concerning volleyball, girls soccer and football.

Also, a correction, and we thank reader "Betsy" for this - we incorrectly listed in the Saturday scoreboard item that Humboldt State TE Alex Hiebert's home was Fall City; she tells us he lives in the Ames Lake area. We apologize for that.

Sunday scoreboard

Two events on the college front, both concering Gonzaga:

-First, men's soccer (Scott Barnum/Sr/Fall City) fell in OT 1-0 to San Diego, down in California. Barnum made seven saves, but the goal was scored 32 seconds into the overtime session on a penalty kick, which the school notes on their website is the fourth time this season that the Zags have fallen in a conference game by way of a penalty kick. Those refs are not being kind, that's for sure.

-The Zag varsity women's rowing team (Chelsie Eddings/Sr/North Bend) finished third at the Head of the Lake race in Seattle. They rowed a time of 18:16.14, 35.5 seconds behind the UW's winning boat. WSU finished second. This race closed out the fall schedule for Gonzaga.

BREAKING NEWS: A stunner in the state draw for Wildcat volleyball

The WIAA this morning released the first-round draw for the state 3A volleyball tournament this weekend in the Tri-Cities. And for the Mount Si Wildcats, who took the #3 seed from SeaKing (see article in this week's Valley Record for more), the draw provided a big shock.

For the second straight year, the Wildcats will open with Lakes High School from University Place near Tacoma. As you will remember from last year, Mount Si was favored to beat the Lancers in that opening round game, but fell in what turned out to be a surprising five-set barnburner. Lakes finished in the middle of the pack at the WCD tournament so the Wildcats again will be favored to win this meeting, but if last year is any guide, it will be interesting to say the least. The game, based on past history, should get underway around 9:00 in the morning over there on Friday. A win and they advance into a round of eight game Friday night around 5:00 or 6:00 against either West Valley of Yakima or Camas.

The feature first round matchup in our view pits Blanchet against Auburn Mountainview. A possible good second round matchup could pit Mount Spokane and Capital, both of whom did very well this season.

Preview and predictions Thursday. Also we will prepare some travel info for all of you once again so you can make plans. Look for that tomorrow or Tuesday.