Monroe earns state volleyball berth
Published 10:59 am Thursday, November 13, 2008
MARYSVILLE — Revenge is so sweet, especially when it puts your team into the state tournament.
Monroe defeated Kamiak 25-20, 25-19, 19-25, 25-22 Wednesday night at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, advancing to Saturday’s 4A District 1 championship and earning one of the District’s three state berths.
“It was the icing on the cake,” Monroe outside hitter Kylin Munoz said, referring to the second-round win over Kamiak. “Kamiak was our only loss in the regular season, and really we wanted to play them again, because we knew that we could beat them.”
Munoz — a senior with her last chance at a state title — abused the Kamiak defense, smashing 24 kills and creating opportunities for the rest of her teammates with nine digs. Megan Birch also contributed both offensively and defensively with 12 kills and 15 digs.
“The biggest thing was that Kamiak was thinking ‘this is pretty easy, we already beat this team this year,’” Monroe head coach April Munoz said. “But we knew what was at stake and it felt so good to win that first match (against Kamiak).”
But Kamiak was no pushover. They defended Kylin Munoz with poise in the early going, and created a major problem for the Monroe defense: the tip shot.
“We have been working on defending tip shots,” April Munoz said. She added that since close to half of Kamiak’s offensive attack Wednesday was the tip shot, “apparently we need to work on it a little more.”
Earlier, Kamiak defeated Marysville-Pilchuck 19-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-20 in a grind-it-out first-round battle that lasted more than two hours. By comparison, Monroe’s first-round win over Arlington (25-10, 25-15, 25-14) took just more than an hour.
Kamiak coach Natalie Bowie didn’t blame her team’s performance against Monroe on the fact that the Knights’ first game lasted so long.
“Mentally, they were prepared for two games back-to-back,” Bowie explained. “Now we have to win two in a row and just get after it.
“We know how it feels to lose a big game because we lost a big game to Edmonds-Woodway (during the regular). (The Bearcats) are a tough team, but it makes us better for the rest of the season facing such a good team.”*
Monroe’s height tested Kamiak’s stout defense, with Kylin Munoz and Birch being over 6-feet tall. Kylin Munoz had numerous kills that sounded like a firecracker going off, and hit the hardwood floor hard enough to do damage to it. Kylin Munoz tried a number of tip shots, but Kamiak had the quickness to defend them. It was her power game that gave the match to Monroe, and more importantly a bid into state.
“You just try to put up a big block,” Bowie said. “That’s basically all you can do.”
Marysville-Pilchuck defeated Arlington 25-20, 25-23, 25-19 in a loser-out match, and for the Tomahawks there is still light at the end of the tunnel. Like Kamiak, M-P has to win its next two games in order to obtain third place and the last District 1 state berth.
Brittany Fitzmaurice had 32 assists, Emily Boerger had 14 kills, and Jenna Welsh had 13 kills in M-P’s victory. Breanna Covey had nine kills, Kenzie Jorgenson had six kills and five blocks, Kelsey Czaban had 24 assists, and Amanda Bottini had 16 digs in Arlington’s final game of the season.
*Correction, Nov. 14, 2008 Coach Bowie was misquoted in the original article.
