MARYSVILLE — The results are in: Monroe, Edmonds-Woodway and Marysville-Pilchuck are heading to the Class 4A state volleyball tournament.
Monroe won the District 1 championship on Saturday — defeating Edmonds-Woodway in a five-set match — and Marysville-Pilchuck earned a state berth by defeating Stanwood in the third-place game. The Warriors earned a trip to Kennewick earlier in the week.
For Stanwood, Kamiak, and Snohomish, the dream to take the third and final state berth came to an end.
In a quirky day that started with a Stanwood upset in a match against Kamiak (9-25, 28-26, 27-25, 17-25, 16-14), the Spartans fought back at the last possible moments in each game.
In the third game, Stanwood trailed 23-19 and stormed back to take a 28-26 victory. In the final game, Stanwood trailed 14-10, only one point from elimination. Stanwood’s Kelsey Kanehan served the entire rest of the way — six straight Stanwood points — and screamed when Stanwood won 16-14.
The most emotion shown all weekend came in the Stanwood-Kamiak match. Stanwood head coach Erik Titus had a lone tear rolling down his face after his team played masterfully against Kamiak. The coach sat alone at the end of the bench, with thoughts racing through his head of what his team accomplished.
But M-P ended Stanwood’s chance of going to state, defeating the Spartans 25-19, 25-15, 25-18, in the third-place game. In M-P’s victory, seniors Jade Thompson, Jenna Welsh, and Emily Boerger combined for 31 kills. Brittany Fitzmaurice had 30 assists.
Stanwood’s Leah Titus — a senior who played her last high school game — had 18 digs in the loss. Chelsea Campbell had 19 assists.
“This is a lot of hard work that has paid off,” M-P head coach Shelly Johnson said. “Stanwood had a great match against Kamiak, unfortunately for them, it probably helped us.
“There were five really tough teams this year. Monroe, E-W, Snohomish and us and Stanwood wasn’t really one we even had in the mix, but they played an excellent tournament.”
In M-P’s earlier match, the Tomahawks defeated Snohomish 25-23, 25-21, 25-21, advancing to the do-or-die game against Stanwood. In the Snohomish match, Welsh and Boerger each had 15 kills, and Fitzmaurice provided 34 assists.
The statistic of the day belonged to Monroe’s Kylin Munoz, as she led Monroe to the championship with a 22-25, 25-17, 25-13, 22-25, 15-10 win against E-W. Munoz’s 39 kills and 12 digs led Monroe to its first ever district championship. Munoz had game-winning spikes in two of Monroe’s three victories in the match. She gave all the credit to teammate Kaitlyn Drew, who had 51 assists, and played a key role down the stretch in Monroe’s victory.
“I couldn’t have done it without our amazing setter, Kaitlyn Drew,” Kylin Munoz said.
E-W set the tone in the first game of the match, winning 25-22. Monroe won the next two games, and the Warriors took the fourth game.
Monroe won 15-10 in the final game, and accomplished the Bearcats’ goal from day one: win the district tournament.
E-W’s Cailin Fellows led the Warriors with 21 kills and 17 digs. Leigh Fishback had 43 assists, three kills, and two blocks. Alex Storino had five serving aces and 22 digs.
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