Meadowdale volleyball beats rival Lynnwood for 3A District 1 title

Published 11:00 pm Saturday, November 5, 2011

SNOHOMISH — It wasn’t how Meadowdale coach Machen Shrum drew it up before Saturday’s Northwest District volleyball championship, but the volleyball coach was happy to leave Glacier Peak high school with her team’s fourth consecutive trip to the 3A state volleyball tournament.

The Mavericks took the opening match of a tense day of volleyball and the district crown with a hard-fought struggle against Lynnwood 17-25, 25-13, 22-25, 25-15, 15-10.

“I don’t think they thought it would be (that tough),” Lynnwood coach Jean Kellogg said. “They are used to beating us.”

Meadowdale (16-1) swept their neighborhood rival in two previous matches this season but was not ready for the emotional punch that Lynnwood packed.

“We gave them some emotion by not playing well and they took advantage as they should,” Shrum said.

Lynnwood, after defeating Everett on Monday, prepared for the taller Mavericks.

“We had prepped for them all week,” Kellogg said. “We moved our net up to eight feet to get ready for the block. We knew that we could clear the block and that Meadowdale’s defense would have to play the ball.

“We did what we set out to do: Keep the ball in play and not end it at the net and make them work to get their points.”

The Royals played with emotion and fire, but not much power. Lynnwood was content to play a finesse game based on strong defense as Meadowdale made hitting error after hitting error. Setter Jennifer Tsuji’s dump kill was the first of the game for Lynnwood, which took an 11-7 edge. Though the Mavericks trimmed the lead to two, it would get no closer as the Royals took the first game fueled almost solely on emotion.

“Lynnwood played outstanding defense,” Shrum said. “I thought we blocked really well, but they were there for the answer. They covered their hitters as strong as I’ve ever seen a team cover their hitters. Sometimes it threw us off not expecting it to come back.”

Meadowdale came back in the second game, showcasing the size and power that earned it the Wesco 3A title. After not being able to find a kill inside the lines in the first game, the Mavs made just three hitting errors in the second. Lindsey Milner led the way with four kills in the game and 17 overall to go with 32 digs.

After Milner put Meadowdale up 10-6 with a kill, the senior served until the Mavs had a 17-6 edge in a rally that basically ended the game. As the senior went, so did the Mavericks. In the second, fourth and fifth games she couldn’t miss. In the first and third she couldn’t hit.

“Monday night against Glacier Peak she could do no wrong,” Shrum said. “So this was a little streaky for her.”

Meadowdale took a 13-7 edge in the third game but errors reared their ugly head — letting the Royals back in the game — and after Lynnwood streaked to the win, suddenly the Royals were a win away from state.

“The (Royals) always get really excited to play us,” Meadowdale senior co-captain Payton Shrum said. “We knew they’d be up, but I think we didn’t come out as strong as we could have. … They played really well. I wasn’t really expecting five games.”

Payton Shrum led Meadowdale with 44 assists and chipped in 24 digs. She never missed a serve and helped the Mavs cruise to a 25-15 edge in the fourth game.

In the deciding game, Lynnwood took a 9-8 edge, but after a time out, Emily Denham, Malorie Mahler and Julianne Kossian reeled off three straight kills to suck the wind out of the Royals’ sails. Denham had 12 kills and 23 digs.

“We had a streak there where we didn’t have a hitter that was consistently hitting the ball,” Machen Shrum said. “That was a little scary for me. I’m not going to hide that.”

Payton Shrum beamed with pride to have been on all four teams that made the state tournament.

“The first year I never thought that it was going to happen and going into this year … I knew that we would be better this year and I didn’t really doubt,” the setter said. “It’s such a big accomplishment. I’m so proud of the whole team for getting us seniors here again.”

As hard as this match was, Meadowdale knows that it will only get more difficult in the state tournament.

“We just proved again how mentally strong we are and that we can stay with teams,” Payton Shrum said. “The teams at state will be a lot harder and I think this is a really good test to show that we can push through games like this.”