SHORELINE — To boost the Shorecrest volleyball team’s rooting section, co-captain Lauren Herold promised her friends a competitive battle Tuesday night against a Jackson team that had won three matches in a row.
OK, so she fibbed.
It turned out Jackson wasn’t any more of a roadblock than the rest of the teams the Scots plowed through en route to a sparking 11-0 start.
Shorecrest rolled over the Timberwolves 25-12, 25-12, 25-17 to remain tied with Everett atop the Western Conference South Division at 5-0. The league leaders are set to collide Oct. 18 at Everett.
“That’s definitely the game,” Herold said of Monday’s showdown. “We were good last year, but they swept us. They killed us. Our strength is we can frustrate teams and make them make mistakes. But they were big and tall and they didn’t make a lot of mistakes.”
The Jackson match marked the 10th straight sweep for the Scots, who took a staggering 33-game win streak into Thursday night’s encounter with Edmonds-Woodway.
“Whenever you have a streak like that somebody always wants to knock you off and end it,” Shorecrest coach Dave Morehouse said. “Because the strength of our game is defense and ball control, we’re less likely to be up and down than we would be if we were a big-hitting team.”
The Scots mixed in some heavy hitting with their steadfast defense to dispose of Jackson in a hurry.
Middle blocker Becky Scherer led Shorecrest with 15 kills, Mary Tseng added eight from the left side and Libby Reynolds had six kills and 10 digs. Freshman setter Anna Herold supplied 33 assists and 15 digs.
“So far if one person’s not getting it done, the others are picking up the slack,” Morehouse said.
Reynolds served out six straight points as part of a 14-3 Shorecrest run to close out the opening game. The Scots started the second game with an 11-4 spurt and never trailed.
Jackson rallied from a five-point deficit midway through the final game and had two chances to knot the score. The first was wiped out by a botched hit and Scherer spoiled the second with a blast that kicked off an 8-1 run by the Scots.
Despite a flawless first month of the season, Shorecrest has yet to crack the Class 3A state rankings. Morehouse sees the team’s absence as an advantage.
“I’d almost rather fly under the radar,” he said. “The teams in our league know what we can do. The end of the year is what matters.”
The Scots have advanced to state the past two seasons and are setting their goals even higher this year.
“It seemed like our ultimate goal was always to get to state. We want to move beyond that,” Morehouse said. “We want to place at state and move on to the second day. We want to get away from the ‘we’re just happy to be here’ type of mentality.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
