SNOHOMISH — Kennedy Horne had a clear message for her teammates.
Kamiak volleyball was on the brink of getting swept by Glacier Peak on Tuesday, trailing 2-0 with the third set coming down to the wire. During a timeout, the senior rallied the team.
“We really need to lock in right now,” Horne said in the huddle. “We really need to get it together. We got this. We’re doing great, but we need to amplify it.”
Kamiak had pulled ahead by as much as 22-14 in the third set, but Glacier Peak battled back with a flurry of kills — and benefitted from a handful of Kamiak errors — to take a 24-23 lead. One more point, and it would be all over.
Kamiak refused to yield, protecting their floor until Glacier Peak failed to return the ball over the net to tie it 24-24. The two sides traded points until sophomore Lily Anderson and junior Cadence Bigby scored on back-to-back kills to take the third set 27-25.
Given an inch, Kamiak took a mile.
The Knights (6-2, 4-1) tied the match with a 25-20 victory in the fourth set before surging ahead for a 15-7 victory in the fifth set, overcoming a 2-0 deficit to secure the 3-2 win (20-25, 23-25, 27-25, 25-20, 15-7) against the Grizzlies (5-4, 3-3) at Glacier Peak High School.
“At the end of the day, volleyball’s a game of mistakes, and it’s a game of who wants it more,” Horne said. “I think tonight, we just wanted it a lot more.”
Horne had 39 assists, while Bigby had 45 digs and 26 kills. After losing 3-2 in both matchups against Glacier Peak last season, Kamiak was eager for redemption. It didn’t matter how much they fell behind, or how close they came to losing. They were going to fight until the last point.
“It was honestly like our energy,” Bigby said as the key for turning things around. “We wanted it so bad, and I think we just fought towards the end. …
“I think we all just reflected on kind of how those (first) two sets went. We want to flip the mindset. Flip it and change it into kind of seeing like the bigger picture of the entire game.”
Things started out close in the first set until the Grizzlies turned a 7-7 deadlock into a 16-8 lead, with senior Claire Sedenquist (11 kills) delivering a couple aces amid the run. Kamiak whittled it down to 21-18 with key kills from Bigby, but a couple big plays from Glacier Peak sophomore Olivia Lincoln helped the Grizzlies take the first set 25-20.
It was more of the same in the second set — starting out close before Glacier Peak took a 19-14 lead, thanks in large part to sophomore Keira Trask (10 kills) — before the Knights cut it to 23-22 on more kills from Bigby and an ace from junior Olivia Hamilton. Ultimately, Sedenquist tipped the ball over on a redirected Glacier Peak spike attempt to take it 25-23 and secure a 2-0 edge.
After Kamiak fended off the Grizzlies to narrowly win the third set, the Knights gave away five straight points on their own errors to open the fourth set. Kamiak coach Jeffrey Choe called a timeout.
“We’ve talked about (it) all season, just staying disciplined,” Choe said. “Doing the little things right. One of the big things I talked about for this game.”
The Knights regrouped by focusing on their swinging, avoiding shots into the net and solidifying their serve receive. After cleaning up their mistakes, Kamiak managed to pull ahead with contributions from everyone on the court.
Freshmen Everly Ruck and Eleni Bezabih made a couple timely blocks and kills at the net, while junior Skyla Major kept play alive during one point with a dig off her torso, which Bigby later finished off to extend the lead to 15-12. Once ahead, Kamiak kept its distance with a couple aces from Bigby before taking a 25-20 win to force a fifth set.
“(Bigby) is a great player, and we didn’t handle her,” Glacier Peak coach Dave Thorn said. “Bottom line, we got to be better when they’re keeping their star player from going off.”
Horne kicked off the fifth set with an ace, and the Knights quickly pulled ahead 10-3 with Bigby and Anderson taking turns executing kills. Even sitting on the bench late in the set, Horne kept encouraging her teammates after every point.
“I was running around a little bit the first and second set, and the third, fourth and fifth set, it was amazing how were able to pull our serve receive together,” Horne said. “I was able to get good sets, (Bigby) was able to get great kills, and we were able to put the ball down more consistently.”
After the Knights built the lead to 14-7, the Grizzlies overshot the ball past the back line, and the comeback was complete.
The only people in the gym not shocked by the result were the Kamiak players themselves, who expressed that the level of discipline and perseverance required to execute that kind of comeback has been built up over time through their practices.
“That’s our energy, that’s our fire, and that’s what we can carry throughout (the season),” Bigby said. “Knowing that we got to hold ourselves to that expectation and even higher. …
“That was Kamiak volleyball. That’s who we are.”
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