MONROE — After spraying kills all over the court Tuesday, the Monroe Bearcats celebrated their biggest victory of the season by spraying each other with orange Silly String.
The Bearcats’ joy was understandable. They had a lot to be excited about.
Overcoming poor starts in the final two games, the Monroe High School volleyball team defeated the Oak Harbor Wildcats 3-0 in a battle for first place in the Western Conference North Division at the Monroe High gym.
Despite the sweep result, the match was actually extremely competitive. Monroe won by game scores of 25-23, 25-23 and 25-20. Kylin Munoz (16 kills), Kelsey Brennan (12 kills) and Kaitlyn Drew (28 assists) helped Monroe (7-0 Wesco North, 11-2 overall) win the division championship and clinch the North No. 1 seed in the upcoming Class 4A District 1 tournament. The squad is within one victory of completing its second consecutive undefeated division season.
“Oak Harbor played real well. You gotta give it to their kids. They came in all sorts of serious,” Monroe coach Dawn Hanson said.
After losing the opening game by two points, Oak Harbor built leads of six points and seven points in the final two games. But Monroe, which got four aces from senior hitter Claire Sowers on senior night, rallied both times.
“One thing my kids can do well is they’re not worried about being behind anymore,” Hanson said. “Being behind doesn’t bother them. If they’re down a few (points), they find a way to make it up.”
Monroe finishes the regular season Thursday at Snohomish, and Oak Harbor (6-1, 10-2) plays its final division match the same day at home against Marysville-Pilchuck (6-1 Wesco North). The winner of the latter match will earn the North 4A No. 2 district seed and the loser gets the No. 3 seed.
Monroe’s four seniors — Brennan, Sowers, Jerrika Groeneweg and Taylor Davis — savored the emotional triumph in the final match they’ll play on their home court.
“It was great,” said Davis, an outside hitter. “It was exciting (and) sad ‘cause for us seniors it’s our last game (at Monroe High), but we pulled it out.”
Oak Harbor standouts like senior setter Rebecca Wheeler (24 assists), junior middle blocker Jennifer Jansen (11 kills) and senior middle blocker Clair Thiel (10 kills, two blocks) did their best to topple Monroe. But the Bearcats rallied for their 17th consecutive North match victory. They haven’t lost a division match since Oct. 18, 2005 (3-0 versus Snohomish).
As usual, two of Monroe’s key difference-makers were Munoz and Brennan. They repeatedly reached high and smacked powerful kills.
“We haven’t come up against a team (like Monroe). They have big hitters,” said Oak Harbor coach Kerri Molitor, who added that her team will compete in the postseason for the first time since 2004.
Brennan tallied five kills in the final half of the last game, and Munoz hammered her 16th kill of the night one play before Sowers ended the match with an ace. On the second-to-last point, Munoz zoomed forward from the back line, elevated and scored on a hit set up by an assist from Drew.
“That was a huge back-row attack,” coach Hanson said. “When you have the confidence to put one of those down and it goes down, it lifts the confidence of the entire team.”
Contact Herald Writer Mike Cane at mcane@heraldnet.com. For more high school sports news, check out the prep sports blog Double Team at www.heraldnet.com/doubleteam.
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