Knights grab ‘huge’ win

Published 11:32 pm Thursday, September 15, 2011

MUKILTEO — Preseason or not, there was no hiding the significance of Kamiak’s surprisingly one-sided 3-0 sweep of Snohomish in a big early season Wesco 4A volleyball matchup Thursday.
Just ask the Knights.

“It’s huge,” Kamiak outside hitters Bryce Larson and Priya Hazari said in unison.

OK, then.

Played in front of a boisterous crowd in a packed and sweltering Kamiak High gym, the Knights showed that along with Jackson, they are clearly the Wesco 4A frontrunners after knocking off the Panthers 25-18, 25-22, 25-22.

The win improves Kamiak to 4-0 while Snohomish fell to 1-2.

“This was definitely one of our top goals,” said Larson, who led the way for Kamiak with 17 kills and eight digs. “We knew that Snohomish is a really good team so to be able to play as well as we did was huge.”

It was the first matchup between two of the league’s top teams in at least four years and Knights coach Natalie Bowie said she sensed her team was energized for the match all week.

“They were definitely really excited to get a chance to play Snohomish and see how we measure up against them,” Bowie said. “I was really happy to see how well we played as a team and how well we came together.”

It was a combination of strong play by Kamiak and a very slow start by Snohomish that got the Knights going. The Panthers, who hadn’t played since dropping a dramatic five-set match to Jackson a week before, struggled to find any kind of hitting rhythm and continually made errors that helped the Knights maintain momentum.

Kamiak used a 7-1 run early in the first set that included five Snohomish hitting errors to lead 11-5. Snohomish got back within 2 at 15-13 before Margaret Wallace scored back-to-back points to get the Knights going again. Two-straight blocks by the Knights propelled a set-ending 5-1 run that put Kamiak ahead.

“Our communication was really strong,” said Hazari, who had six kills, including set-clinchers in the first and third. “We were working really well together and moving the ball around well.”

Snohomish first-year coach Alex Tarin said he felt his team was hurt by the weeklong layoff since the Jackson match and that showed in the first set.

“It definitely hurt us,” he said. “They had momentum and they came right out and took control and we were off and never really could pull it together.”

Snohomish showed more life in the next two sets, holding leads in each but failing to keep the advantage. In the second set, the Panthers led 10-7 after a Karissa Lamphere ace but Kamiak reeled off eight-straight points and 10 of the next 11 to lead 18-12. Snohomish rallied to get within 1 at 23-22 but Hazari’s kill and a Snohomish hitting error put the Knights up 2-0.

Snohomish took an even more commanding lead in the third as sophomore star Lanesha Reagan heated up, getting three kills and a block en route to a 9-3 lead. Another Reagan kill made it 15-9 but at 18-15, Avya Thomas and Ally Bowles combined on a block and Larson followed with a kill to spark a 7-1 run that put the Knights ahead 22-19. An attack error by the Panthers and a kill by Hazari ended things.

“We played really intense, we played with a lot of confidence in each other and it was just fun to watch,” said Bowie, who added she didn’t think it would be hard to focus her team on the present with a match against Jackson looming on Oct. 10. “When a team is as unified and together as we were, it’s great to see.”

Bowles, Kamiak’s outstanding senior setter, had 28 assists. Reagan finished with 10 kills, Cierra Short had six kills and nine digs and Hannah Mantei had 15 assists for Snohomish.

“It’s still early and this is a good group of girls,” Tarin said. “We’ll go back to the drawing board, regroup and come out and have fun.”