EDMONDS — Good teams find a way to battle adversity and rise above it.
The Edmonds-Woodway girls volleyball team showed that quality while defeating Marysville Pilchuck 3-1 on Tuesday. Set scores were 25-20, 20-25, 25-22 and 25-19.
After holding a lead for most of the first set, the Warriors found themselves trailing the Tomahawks 20-17 after a run of five straight points by Marysville Pilchuck. Instead of imploding, Edmonds-Woodway responded with eight consecutive points of its own to win the first set 25-20.
“We have a pretty young team, so to be able to comeback from losing a lead and to finish strong with those last few points is huge,” Edmonds-Woodway head coach Nicole Bordeaux said.
Edmonds-Woodway’s run was highlighted by two aces from senior Kym Lundt that seemed to spark the rally. Senior Maddie Judd closed out the set with a kill after a lengthy point that featured several body-sacrificing saves by both teams.
The Tomahawks showed they could respond from adversity themselves in the second set. After trailing for the first half of the set, Marysville Pilchuck took a lead and never let it go. The 25-20 win knotted the match at a game apiece.
“I’m pretty proud of the girls,” Marysville Pilchuck head coach Brittany Fitzmaurice said. “They’ve showed a lot of relentless pursuit this season. It’s pretty amazing. They’ve fought in a lot of fifth game matches this year. That’s all them. They don’t want to give up. They want the win so bad that they’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”
The Tomahawks’ effort kept them in every set, but the Warriors proved to be too much. They held off a late run by Marysville Pilchuck in the third set to win 25-22 and scored six of the final seven points in the fourth set to win 25-19.
Lundt capped off the Warriors final run with a match-clinching kill.
“She’s a senior, she’s a captain and she’s a leader,” Bordeaux said. “In crunch points and crunch times, we know we can always count on her. (She’s) a very, very smart player defensively and offensively, so it doesn’t surprise me that she stepped up to the plate and just did what she needed to do. She usually does.”
Lundt finished with a team-high 15 kills. She also added eight digs and three aces.
Judd, who played middle and right-side hitter for the Warriors in the match, also came up big, finishing with 12 kills and two blocks.
“I think she did a phenomenal job and was super-aggressive offensively and blocking she did a great job,” Bordeaux said.
Throw in senior Lea Bakken along with Lundt and Judd, and the Warriors have a very formidable front line.
“I don’t always consider us to be really tall, but when I’ve got Lea (Bakken), Maddie (Judd) and Kym (Lundt) in the front row we seem to really do well,” Bordeaux said.
With the victory, Edmonds-Woodway and Glacier Peak remain the only Wesco 3A South school with just one league-loss this season — the Grizzlies are 5-1, while the Warriors are 4-1. Marysville Pilchuck’s record dropped to 3-3 in the Wesco 3A North behind Arlington and Oak Harbor.
Despite the loss, Fitzmaurice saw an opportunity for her team to grow.
“I don’t feel like we’ve played a team as competitive and as fast as Edmonds-Woodway yet, so we’re learning how to run a faster defense and recognize the set quicker,” Fitzmaurice said. “We’ll take that back to practice with us.”
Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow him on Twitter at @aaronlommers and contact him at alommers@heraldnet.com.
At Edmonds-Woodway H.S.
Marysville Pilchuck 20 25 22 19 — 1
Edmonds-Woodway 25 20 25 25 — 3
Highlights — Marysville Pilchuck: Olivia Hughes four blocks; Kendal McCoy 24 digs. Edmonds-Woodway: Kym Lundt 15 kills, eight digs, three aces; Kelly Gootee 46 assists; Maddie Judd 12 kills, two blocks; Lea Bakken eight kills, one dig, one ace. Records – Marysville Pilchuck 3-3 league, 5-3 overall. Edmonds-Woodway 4-1, 5-2.
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