Eatonville girls finish season fourth in SPSL 2A

The Lady Cruisers wrapped up their season this past week with a couple of games against Fife and White River.

On June 8, the Cruisers visited Fife High School and drubbed the Trojans, 52-27. Junior Haley Rath scored 31 points for the Lady Cruisers.

With that win, the Cruisers were awarded the No. 4 seed into the SPSL 2A league playoffs. The Cruisers then faced the No. 1 seed White River Hornets.

The Hornets, who went on to win the SPSL 2A league title, ran away with the game and stung the Cruisers with a 72-34 loss, ending their season.

Rath scored 20 points to lead the Cruisers.

The Lady Cruisers ended the season with a 10-4 record, which earned them a fourth-place finish in the SPSL 2A league as a 1A school. Their only losses came from the eventual league champs White River (2), Enumclaw and Franklin Pierce.

With this year being such a struggle for everyone, head coach Erik Swartout didn’t want to place too high of an expectation on the team.

“The only expectations we had going into this yyear of the unknown' was to compete and have fun,” he said. “I told my team at the beginning of the season that we had to be willing to adapt to the changing schedules and restrictions, which I thought they did very well.”

The Cruisers will be losing two starters from this year’s squad with the graduation of seniors Alexia Price and Gionna Mervyn.

“We are going to be losing Alexia and Gionna next year,” Swartout said. “They are both going to be deeply missed. We are not only going to be losing two good basketball players, but two incredible people that have made a huge impact on this program during their time here. It will be a tough job to replace those two ladies.”

With their departure, Swartout is looking forward to seeing who will fill their shoes.

“Next year, we are returning three starters, and I'm really looking forward to seeing which girls step up to fill the void of Alexia and Gionna.”

The Cruisers will be moving into the Evergreen 1A league next season, and Swartout is looking forward to it.

“Next year, we are looking forward to being in the Evergreen league,” he said. “Overall, I think the quality of basketball will be a perfect fit for us and will be a great test as there are some good programs down there. Although it has been great competing against SPSL 2A teams, it will be a good change of scenery playing teams that are of similar size to us.”