Wildcats move up with win / Volleyball

By Jim Waller • October 13, 2017 1:30 am

The Oak Harbor High School volleyball team climbed two spots in the Wesco standings this week with a pair of wins, the latest a 3-2 thriller over visiting Mountlake Terrace Thursday, Oct. 12.

The win evened the Wildcats’ conference record at 4-4 (5-5 overall) and lifted Oak Harbor into a seventh-place tie with Edmonds-Woodway. Four league matches remain as the Wildcats jockey for one of the nine playoff berths.

Before Oak Harbor begins its final push toward the postseason, it travels to the Wenatchee Invitational Saturday, Oct. 14. Then it resumes league action with a trip to Lynnwood (5-3, 5-5), the team just above Oak Harbor in the Wesco standings, at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17.

Oak Harbor 3, Mountlake Terrace 2 (25-22, 25-18, 25-27, 15-25, 15-13)

The pesky Hawks wouldn’t go away.

Mountlake Terrace (1-8, 2-9) came to Oak Harbor with only one league win, and the Wildcats, as expected, controlled the first two sets.

The Hawks rallied for a 27-25 win in the third game to stay alive, then scored the final eight points in the fourth set for a convincing 25-15 win.

Oak Harbor took leads of 8-3 and 13-8 in the final game, but Terrace continued its comeback ways and trimmed those gaps to 8-6 and 14-13 before the Wildcats prevailed.

Coach Kerri Molitor praised the play of Camden Miller, who stepped into the setter role for an injured Andrea Ruben and dished out 35 assists and fired three aces.

Hailee Blau and Cami Bristow each played a strong all-around match. Blau had 13 kills, 16 digs and 4.5 blocks; and Bristow added 11 kills, 14 digs and three aces.

Kristina Tirado recorded 5.5 blocks and Ceirra Dean collected 18 digs.