At the beginning of the season, Bothell High volleyball players promised to dominate the league schedule.

It took the better part of the year to come to fruition, but the dominance arrived just ahead of the conference tournament and carried the Cougars to a sixth-place finish on Nov. 12 at the state tournament in Kennewick — the best finish in program history.

“I think a trophy was on our list,” coach Russell Monsef said. “We wanted to be KingCo champs, KingCo tournament champs and we wanted a [state] trophy. It was a personal goal of mine, too, as the senior class was loaded with talent.”

“I would not have been satisfied if we hadn’t come back with a trophy,” Monsef said.

Bothell lost to Auburn-Mountainview, 3-1, in the fifth-place match at the Toyota Center, but Monsef said he was happy with the experience — even a tough-to-swallow loss to Mead in the quarterfinals.

The Cougars held serve with Mead, which lost in the championship match, on Friday evening in the second round. Mead won 25-23, 28-26, 25-23 to advance, beat Kentwood 3-1 in the semifinal and lost to Auburn-Riverside in the final.

“We talked about, if you play good volleyball, you can live with the results,” Monsef said. “We played as good as we can play. We could have done a few things better, but we were competing. Mead is a perennial powerhouse, so losing by two is tough but the girls felt good about the loss.”

Bothell seniors Maddie Rayburn, Alexa Torres, Sydney Cowan and Camille Gilmore saw the final match of their career on Nov. 12. Senior Sierra Myers missed the tournament with an injury.

Rayburn stepped into Myers’ role.

“We didn’t change the offense,” Monsef said. “Girl practice most skills, and even the setters hit. She did a great job stepping in, getting timely blocks, timely kills and digs.”

Monsef, who took the head job after several years as an assistant said he plans to hold the head coaching position for at least one more season before reevaluating.

Bothell finished eighth at the state tournament in 1997, 2002 and 2013.