Prep volleyball: Lake Stevens 3, MP 0

Published 10:04 pm Monday, October 24, 2011

MARYSVILLE — The third and fourth place teams in the Wesco North division took to the volleyball court with the playoffs looming just a week away and an opportunity to get their teams prepared for the new season.

At the end of the night, Lake Stevens (7-2 league, 9-4 overall) was simply too efficient offensively for Marysville Pilchuck (4-5, 6-7) to handle, winning 25-19, 25-22 and 25-22.

The Vikings got 17 kills from senior Cecelia Licciardi, 35 assists from Molli Drivdahl and an additional seven kills from sophomore Kendall Swanson. According to Marysville Pilchuck head coach Shelly Johnson, the Vikings’ execution up front and her team’s corresponding lack of the same was the deciding factor in the match.

“The sets were really close, but when you make as many errors as we did, it’s really tough to win,” Johnson said. “Just a lot of unforced errors, missed serves, hitting errors, missed digs … We didn’t adjust on defense and they hit around our block really well.”

The Tomahawks got 15 kills from senior hitter Hannah Watson and five kills from Jessica Boyle. Senior setter RaeAnn Bobadilla contributed 29 assists.

The opportunity to generate some momentum heading into the playoffs wasn’t lost on Johnson, who’s team concludes its regular season on Wednesday with Arlington.

“Absolutely (this was a big game),” said Johnson. “This time of the year you want to be at least battling. I told my team tonight that I didn’t feel like we battled. We gave so many points up tonight that it didn’t feel like that.

“We definitely need to work on at least doing a better job of getting the ball up.”

The Tomahawks will hope to get things rectified quickly while Lake Stevens still has a shot at the No. 2 seed out of the North as it currently sits tied with Monroe with one game to play.