Meadowdale, Everett earn trips to 3A state
Published 10:37 am Monday, November 9, 2009
EVERETT — It must have felt like deja vu for Everett and Meadowdale at the 3A District 1 championship on Saturday at Cascade High School.
The two teams battled for the district title last year with the Mavericks edging out Everett in five games. This year it was nearly the same story as Meadowdale overcame a rough start to win both the title (13-25, 23-25, 25-6, 25-11, 15-11) and earn the No. 1 District 1 seed to state.
After the first match ended with a 25-13 win for Everett, Meadowdale’s hopes of a district championship could have been shattered. Instead the Mavericks used the fear of losing the title to improve and power through the next four matches.
“That was a little shocking,” said Meadowdale head coach Machen Shrum about the score of game one. “I think we were a little bit nervous. I guess it was just the reality of what we were playing for and the nerves got the best of them in the first game.”
Once the nerves settled, Meadowdale managed to keep the second match close, even leading 21-14 before the Seagulls closed the gap and narrowly won 25-23.
“(The girls) just wanted (the championship) badly,” said Shrum. “I said to them, ‘They took the momentum from you in the second game. Take it back.’”
And take it back the Mavericks did in the must-win third match that proved Meadowdale was a force to be reckoned with. They capitalized on Everett mistakes and easily won 25-6.
Led by sophomore outside hitter Lindsey Milner with eight digs and a season-high 17 kills and senior middle blocker Alexa Cannon with 11 kills and a season-high seven blocks, Meadowdale continued to play strong. The score was close in the beginning of the fourth match before the Mavericks broke away on a 10-point streak to seal the win and force a fifth game tiebreaker.
“My seniors really stepped up,” said Shrum. “My setter (Megan Nelson) especially led the team and got loud and vocal and got the momentum on our side.”
In the final game, Everett kept it close before Meadowdale pulled away 14-8. After an Everett time out, the Seagulls managed to pull within three before falling 15-11.
“That’s volleball for you,” said Everett head coach Heather McLeod of the power shift. “You can have all the confidence in the world, blow a team away, and then they will come back and do the same thing to you. Our passing struggled and when you take away our passing, you take away our big hitters.”
However, the Seagulls managed to rack up some strong numbers, led by Mackenzie Banta with 32 assists and 18 digs, Haley Rudolph with eight kills and Molly Burton with seven kills and five blocks.
Meadowdale also had strong performances by Megan Nelson with 37 assists and 13 digs, Payton Shrum’s 22-for-22 serving with four aces and Jessica Yi’s 25 digs and three aces.
Everett earns state berth
After the loss to Meadowdale in the championship game, Everett had less than an hour to recuperate and regroup before their winner-to-state, loser-out match against Ferndale. With the tears left in the locker room and bright smiles on their face at the urging of McLeod, the Seagulls came back positive and won the second spot to state (25-20, 25-21, 25-23).
“Once you can get past the loss and leave it (in the locker room) and come out fresh, it makes all the difference,” said McLeod. “I said, ‘We’re enforcing the smile rule. You have to smile, even if you’re faking it.’ Just so the positive energy came out on the court.”
The Seagulls also had a mission to make sure history didn’t repeat itself twice. After last year’s loss to Meadowdale, Everett lost again and failed to advance to state. This year, thanks to a strong collective effort, they will be returning to state for the first time since 2006.
Sophomore libero Jody Barhanovich (16 digs), junior outside hitter Emily Liger (13 aces, 15 kills) and junior setter Mackenzie Banta (three aces, 27 assists) led Everett in the second game.
2A District 1 playoffs: At Marysville, Archbishop Murphy defeated Burlington-Edison 3-2 for the district championship, the first in school history, asccording to coach Jeff Curtis. Becca Gotz had 16 kills, two blocks and 18 digs; Savannah Fletcher had 23 kills, eight blocks and three aces; Dani Baehm had 51 assists and four aces, and Hannah Linsenmayer had 48 digs and six aces for Murphy (16-1 overall).
1A District 1 playoffs: At Shoreline, King’s placed sixth and earned a trip to next week’s state tournament. The Knights lost their first match to Annie Wright, but came back to defeat Seattle Christian in a winner-to-state, loser-out match.
2B Tri-district playoffs: At Coupeville, Darrington lost its first match and staved off elimination, winning its next three matches to earn the third and final state berth. Darrington defeated Bear Creek 3-2, (20-25, 25-18, 25-19, 16-25, 16-14) and trailed 10-4 in the final set before rallying for the win. Hailey Wales had 16 kills and five blocks and Jessica Brooks had seven kills and five blocks to lead Darrington.
