Monroe is Wesco North volleyball champ

Published 10:10 pm Thursday, October 28, 2010

MARYSVILLE — Monroe and Marysville-Pilchuck each clinched trips to the 4A District 1 volleyball tournament last week, but there was still the matter of deciding the Western Conference North Division champion.

Monroe senior outside hitter Megan Birch had 24 kills, including the emphatic game-winner, as the Bearcats took the division title in the final regular-season game by beating the Tomahawks 25-17, 25-22, 20-25, 25-20 Wednesday night at Marysville-Pilchuck High School.

The Bearcats (8-0 league, 13-1 overall) captured their fourth-straight league title with a strong performance against M-P (7-1, 10-4).

Monroe battled serving inconsistencies throughout the contest, but Birch, setter Kendal Munoz and middle blocker Meagan McPhetridge buoyed the Bearcats on offense.

Munoz, a sophomore setter, dished out 46 assists and McPhetridge earned 10 kills and seven blocks while helping Monroe reach an undefeated league record for the fourth consecutive season. The Bearcats have won 34 consecutive league matches, dating back to 2005.

“We had moments where mentally we lapsed,” Monroe head coach April Munoz said. “… Typically we’re a very strong serving team, but we couldn’t rely on that tonight.”

Despite its bouts with mental instability at points, Monroe proved good enough to string together a couple very strong rallies, including a come-from-behind win in the match’s second game.

Monroe trailed 19-13, but benefited from a couple key blocks and a Kendal Munoz kill to storm back and tie the score 20-20. Marysville-Pilchuck couldn’t stop Monroe’s momentum and fell 25-22.

The Tomahawks, the Wesco North No. 2 seed to districts, charged back with a third-game win, but couldn’t find the groove to force the match to five games.

“I don’t think that we ever got consistent,” M-P head coach Shelly Johnson said. “We managed to win the third game, but it probably had more to do with Monroe having more errors and not having their best game.

“I don’t think we ever got really consistent to the point where we were on a role.”

Johnson shifted her lineup, inserting a different libero and middle blocker, in an effort to counter Birch’s strong attacking.

“We had some different personnel in there than we normally do,” Johnson said. “It’s more of a matter that you go through your season and you kind of count on people and maybe tonight was a little much (emotionally) because of senior night, and that was a worry of mine.

“… I think we made some adjustments and those adjustments did work for the most part, but we never got consistent … you just can’t beat another team as good as Monroe when you give away points.”

Riley Taitingfong had 34 assists for M-P and senior outside hitter Mikayla LaRosa added 19 kills and two service aces.

Fellow senior Alisha Oden had six kills and junior Tiva Akau had 32 digs.

Monroe clinched the league’s No. 1 seed and opens district play Nov. 4 against the winner of Monday’s play-in game featuring Mountlake Terrace and Cascade.

“It’s going to be tough, its going to be a battle all the way through,” Munoz said, adding that the Bearcats are playing much better as a unit than earlier this season when the team suffered a loss to Edmonds-Woodway and went down to the wire in a five-game win against M-P.

Freshman Melina Seabrook had 12 kills and 10 digs and Nicole Reyling added 14 digs for Monroe.

Marysville-Pilchuck starts tournament play Nov. 5 against a strong Edmonds-Woodway team. The Warriors beat Monroe earlier this season and beat M-P 3-0 on Sept. 17.

“The last couple of district tournaments I have been at there have been some big upsets on the first day,” M-P’s Johnson said. “We’ve already played Edmonds-Woodway once; it was probably the worst performance of the year for us, so I’m anxious to play them again and we’ll just see — but it’s the district tournament, everything starts over.”