Mavs beat Royals

LYNNWOOD — It was the type of performance the Meadowdale Mavericks volleyball team has been turning in all season.

In fact, it may have even been better.

The Mavericks, who improved to 10-1 in league and 12-1 overall, cruised to a three-set sweep over Wesco 3A rival Lynnwood on Thursday night. Set scores were 25-17, 25-19 and 25-22.

With the loss, Lynnwood fell to 6-4 in league and 7-4 overall.

Meadowdale established itself early in the first set, jumping out to a 19-4 lead led by senior outside hitter Lindsey Milner. Milner racked up six of her 14 kills in the first set.

“She did take over,” Meadowdale coach Machen Shrum said. “She has really been working on that. You know the first half of the season she was still kind of recovering from surgery. I think it was a little bit of a mind game for her to figure out if it’s okay to jump and if it’s okay to be aggressive. So, the past four matches she has really jumped out and been aggressive and tonight she did a really nice job.”

Milner had surgery on her foot in the offseason.

Lynnwood had no answer for the height Milner, who is 5-10, and the rest of the Mavericks front line at the net and the Royals appeared frustrated as Meadowdale was able to record several blocks early in the match.

“Tonight, Meadowdale was the best I’ve ever seen a team in our league at blocking,” Lynnwood coach Jean Kellogg said after the match.

Shrum seemed pleased with her team’s performance at the net as well.

“We did block well tonight,” Shrum said. “I was pleased with that. That is probably the best blocking we have done since early in the season.”

The Royals began to make adjustments to what the Mavericks were doing and were able to close the gap in the first set, but too much damage had been done early and the Mavs took a 1-0 lead.

Whatever momentum Lynnwood had picked up late in the first set, however, did not carry over. Meadowdale never trailed in the second set and, while it never built quite as large of a lead over Lynnwood in the second game, easily cruised to a 2-0 lead.

The Royals only lead in the first two sets came when they scored the first point of the match.

In the third set, Lynnwood looked poised to change its fortune. The Royals controlled more than half of the set, managing a lead or a tie for all but one of the points until Meadowdale stormed back to take a 19-18 lead. The Royals would never lead again as the Mavericks showed a resilience they hadn’t had to summon previously in the match. Senior Kate Stevens closed out the sweep with an ace on the final point.

“That was a big goal of ours tonight, to obviously win the match first of all, but second was to be in three games, since we beat them the first time in three games,” Shrum said.

Senior setter Payton Shrum had 25 assists and Emily Denham had seven kills for the Mavericks.

Jennifer Tsuji had 20 assists, Dominique Collins had 10 kills and 12 digs and Arianna Garcia had eight kills and 15 digs for the Royals.

The match also marked the second annual Dig for the Cure event benefitting cancer research. Last year the Dig for the Cure was held when Lynnwood hosted Meadowdale, this season the Mavericks hosted the event. The Royals wore pink shirts recognizing those who have battled breast cancer, while the Mavericks wore purple shirts recognizing those who have survived cancer.

Payton Shrum also made coordinating this year’s Dig for the Cure her senior project at school.

Dig for the Cure works together with Seattle Cancer Care Alliance to raise money for cancer research. Shrum said after the match that they wouldn’t know until sometime today how much money they were able to raise.

Aaron Lommers covers prep sports for The Herald. Follow his live blogs at www.heraldnet.com/prepzone, follow him on twitter @aaronlommers and contact him at aaronlommers@gmail.com