LYNNWOOD — On paper, it was anyone’s game for the taking.
Meadowdale volleyball had split its season series with Shorecrest 1-1, losing 3-0 on Sept. 25 before winning the rematch 3-1 on Oct. 21. Entering the District 1 3A Tournament Play-in round, the two squads were seeded eighth and ninth, respectively, with Meadowdale hosting the rubber match on Thursday.
After winning the first set to take an early lead, Meadowdale dropped behind 4-2 in the second set. It was a small deficit with plenty of points left to play, but a significant run one way or the other had the power to dictate the trajectory of the rest of the match. Receiving Shorecrest’s serve, Meadowdale eventually cut it to 4-3 after senior Ja’elle Jenkins’ attack hit off a couple opposing arms and deflected out of bounds.
By the time Shorecrest scored its next point to get the serve back, Meadowdale had built up an 18-4 lead.
Riding a 16-point serve streak to a second set win, the No. 8 seed Mavericks (8-9) took a commanding 2-0 lead before defeating the No. 9 seed Scots (5-12) by a score of 3-1 (25-13, 25-14, 20-25, 25-16) to advance to the district quarterfinals.
“I think the first time we played them, there were some special circumstances. We didn’t play our best,” Meadowdale coach Emily Carroll said. “And then I think ever since we played them, every time we’ve just gotten better and better. We’ve been really hitting our peak at the end of this season, so I think it was really about who wanted it tonight, and my girls came out and they wanted it.”
Jenkins led with 22 kills and nine digs, while senior Violet DuBois had 10 kills, 10 digs and four blocks. Senior Rian Paris had 22 assists.
The two teams traded points to begin the first set until the Mavericks started to dominate at the net. Several blocks from Paris and senior Lindsey Warner paired with four aces from DuBois played a large part in Meadowdale turning a 10-9 edge into a 19-9 lead. From there, Jenkins executed a block and a kill before junior Andrea Rios set the ball up after a dig from sophomore Ariana Ree, which DuBois sent over the net. Shorecrest was unable to return the attack in bounds, and the Mavericks secured a 25-13 win in the first set.
With strong serve receive and good passing, Meadowdale set the tone early.
“We were just very engaged in the game,” DuBois said. “And a lot of communication helped us set that up.”
The Mavericks utilized another long scoring streak in the second game to tuck it away quickly. In addition to capitalizing on a handful of errors and violations from the Scots, Meadowdale built its 16-point serve streak off the back of aces from Jenkins, kills from DuBois and a couple of blocks from sophomores Stella Henderson and Tukuza Kawinga. After building up an 18-4 lead, Shorecrest managed to whittle away at the large deficit led by efforts from juniors Eva Umlauf and Anna Usitalo, but it was too big a cushion to overcome.
“I think when we get the leads, that brings up our energy so much,” Jenkins said. “I think for this team, that’s the secret ingredient. If we have good energy and we’re having fun on the court, that’s when we are able to take these good teams.”
With their backs against the wall, the Scots pushed out to a 4-0 lead in the third set. Meadowdale ultimately worked it back into an 11-11 tie, with Rios and senior Constantine Boenarjo laying out for tricky digs to keep a long rally alive before Shorecrest committed a mistake. The Scots responded with four straight points via a kill from sophomore Emily Werner, a block from Umlauf and an ace from senior Lily Gravett as well as a Mavericks error, which led Carroll to call timeout.
The teams started to hand each other points based on their own mistakes and violations until the Scots strung together a run of blocks and kills, capped by junior Emmeline Koenig delivering the final attack in the 25-20 set win.
“We knew they were going to come back strong,” Carroll said. “They weren’t just going to give it to us. We were all fighting hard for that district spot, but I think just making sure my girls knew that we needed to keep strong, come out strong.”
According to Carroll, Meadowdale struggled to close out matches earlier in the season, with three of their first five of the season reaching the fifth set. As the season went on, she noticed her team start to finish stronger, and the Mavericks entered Thursday with wins in five of their past eight matches after starting the season 2-6.
Not wanting to fall back into old habits, Meadowdale jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fourth set in large part from a couple of kills by Jenkins and a block by Warner. Driven by Jenkins and DuBois on the attack, with support from Warner, Rios and Ree among others, the Mavericks built up another large lead. A couple of aces from Paris capped a mini-run to make it 19-10 before Shorecrest called timeout. Meadowdale kept its foot on the gas, benefitting from an ace by Rios and a block by Warner to reach match point, where the Scots sent the ball out past the back line to seal it.
“I feel like it just built our confidence,” Jenkins said of the win. “This is a team (Shorecrest) that we went 1-1 with. I think taking this team now, we know what we can do.”
Advancing to the district quarterfinals, Meadowdale will face the top seed, Stanwood, on Tuesday. It will be a tall task, but with a playoff win already under their belt, the Mavericks are hoping to play spoiler by competing with the same energy that carried them this far.
“I think it just set the tone of like, ‘Okay, this is districts,’” DuBois said. “We’re locked in, and we’re ready for it.”
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