M-P overcomes Oak Harbor’s height

OAK HARBOR — For all intents and purposes, the Oak Harbor Wildcats and Marysville-Pilchuck Tomahawks were dead even entering Thursday night’s Wesco North volleyball contest.

M-P entered the contest with a 10-3 overall record, while Oak Harbor was 10-2. The teams were tied for second place in the Wesco North standings, both boasting 6-1 league records, with both teams’ lone league losses coming to conference champion Monroe.

And the early portion of the match was as even as the team’s records. But M-P used its athleticism to overcome Oak Harbor’s size advantage as the Tomahawks defeated the Wildcats 25-19, 18-25, 25-19, 25-18 to wrap up second place in the Wesco North and the No. 2 seed to next week’s 4A District 1 tournament.

“They are really very athletic girls,” M-P coach Shelly Johnson said of her squad. “I’m glad to see that they came through here in the end.”

Oak Harbor led 12-11 in the first game, until a missed Wildcats spike sparked an 8-2 M-P run that clearly gave the Tomahawks momentum.

“Volleyball is really momentum-oriented,” Johnson said. “We’re used to that — we’re used to that up and down. But really when you get momentum, you wanna keep it.”

With libero Jadelyn Thompson digging everything in the back row and southpaw opposite hitter Anna West providing the timely kills, the Tomahawks iced game one 25-19 after the Wildcats crawled to within two at 20-18.

The break in the action seemed to help the Wildcats as the second game was all Oak Harbor, who won 25-18. The gymnasium resembled a pinball machine on several rallies, as the ball bounced around the rafters before returning to play.

That didn’t seem to hinder Oak Harbor, as senior middle blocker Jennifer Jansen took over the contest in game two, her 6-foot, 2-inch frame towering above the smaller Tomahawks. Jansen finished with 14 kills, most of them coming in the second game.

Jansen’s solid game two performance had the Tomahawks focusing on ways to stop her for the rest of the match.

“We talked a lot about how we needed to be really solid when (Jansen) was out of the game,” Johnson said.

M-P did just that in game three, which was also a tightly-knit affair until a four-touch point lost by Oak Harbor tied the contest at nine. Then the Tomahawks turned to senior outside hitter Kristeen Juarez and her devastating spikes as M-P jumped out to a 23-17 lead. Oak Harbor staved off defeat for several possessions, but a Wildcat serve into the net clinched the 25-19 game three victory for the Tomahawks.

The decisive game four looked like it was going to be a blowout for the Tomahawks, who built an 11-0 lead with Thompson providing the serving.

But she served long on her 12th opportunity and the Wildcats made a valiant comeback effort, closing the gap to three at 21-18. But Oak Harbor couldn’t get any closer as M-P clinched the 25-18 game four win and the 3-1 match victory.

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