Archbishop Murphy volleyball hands Edmonds-Woodway first loss

EVERETT — The Archbishop Murphy and Edmonds-Woodway volleyball teams entered Wednesday night with 5-0 league records.

The Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association’s Week 4 rankings listed Edmonds-Woodway at No. 10 in 3A and Archbishop Murphy unranked in 2A. However, what’s on paper doesn’t always reflect with will happen on the court, and that was the case for the Wildcats (9-1 overall, 6-0 league) as they won 3-1 and handed the Warriors (8-1, 5-1) their first loss of the season in a matchup of two Wesco 3A/2A South unbeaten teams. The set scores were 23-25, 25-19, 25-19, 25-15.

“It was just really being crisp and disciplined on our side of the net, being true to our systems,” said Archbishop Murphy coach Allie Sinex about her team’s strategy against a challenging opponent. “And then having good eye work so that we can keep track of what’s happening across the net and be efficient getting into our systems on our side.

“I told them we had to control our side. That was really the difference,” she continued about the momentum shift after dropping the first set. “We were prepared for what they were going to do, but we weren’t allowing ourselves to play free on our side and actually execute our gameplan.”

Wildcats senior pin hitter Tatum Gill charted 22 kills and four aces, sophomore setter/pin hitter Teuila Halalilo recorded 13 kills, 18 assists, six aces and three blocks, and senior setter/pin hitter Laura Esping added four kills, 19 assists and 11 digs.

Archbishop Murphy’s largest lead of the first set was 12-5 before the Warriors went on two five-point streaks to tie it 14-14 and then take the lead, never trailing again. Losing the first set fueled the Wildcats, and they rallied to secure the second and third sets by the same score.

The fourth set had four lead changes, but once Archbishop Murphy surpassed Edmonds-Woodway 10-9, the road was clear as the Wildcats tallied five- and seven-point streaks to help secure the home victory.

“I’m super excited,” Gill said. “I haven’t really had like a good start to my season yet, so I feel like it’s a good kickoff to start only going up for my confidence.

“The biggest thing was calming down and remembering they’re just like any other team and to just play with confidence instead of feeding into their confidence,” she continued. “(Sinex) was like, ‘We got to push. This is unacceptable just to let ourselves fall back down.’”

Warriors’ junior libero Addy Pontak registered 17 digs and four aces, junior setter Neeva Travis posted 12 assists and six aces, senior outside hitter Reinna Mostrales tallied eight kills and three digs, and junior outside hitter Ava Bartin had 10 digs.

“We were short-handed,” Edmonds-Woodway coach Bart Foley said. “We were missing our best hitter. Sawyer Hiatt was home sick, so I knew right off the jump we were not at our best playing against them.

“We jumped on them (too early),” he continued. “I knew that they were not that team that we saw in the first set, and I also knew conversely that we probably weren’t that team to jump out to that kind of lead against these guys. … Their serve-receive improved, just enough to kind of get their offense going, and then we just didn’t react and respond well enough.”

They square off again on Oct. 29 inside Edmonds-Woodway High School, the last match of the regular season for both squads.