It wasn’t always pretty, but the Oak Harbor volleyball team came through when it needed to during its first league match against Cascade on Tuesday.

“We had a lot of unforced errors and we had some fantastic things happen that are the ‘wow’ plays and I want those plays to happen more regularly,” OHHS head coach Kerri Molitor said.

The Wildcats committed 41 unforced errors, but still defeated the Bruins in four games, 25-7, 21-25, 25-15 and 25-16.

Oak Harbor was dominant in the first game as senior Ashley Kingma recorded five aces on her first six serves. She ended the night with seven total aces.

“I know she has career (record) aces in mind and I know she’s really close,” Molitor said.

The Wildcats limited mistakes to just five unforced errors in the first game, cruising to the easy victory.

Game two, however, was a different story.

Oak Harbor committed 14 unforced errors, six of which were missed serves.

“As talented as we are we have to remember that we have a lot to work on,” Molitor said.

The Wildcats continued to have troubles over the next two games, committing 11 errors in each. Strong play at the net, however, allowed OHHS to prevail.

Senior Miranda Theil provided 13 kills, while senior Jennifer Muzzall had five kills, three blocks and four aces. Kingma added 21 assists for the Wildcats.

Snohomish 3, OHHS 0

Oak Harbor was unable to duplicate its performance during its second match of the week, losing 3-0 at undefeated Snohomish on Thursday.

“It was disappointing how we played,” Molitor said. “I would much rather of had us play hard and lose than lose the way we did.”

The Panthers won in three games 25-20, 25-20, 25-19 and were aggressive from the first point to the last point.

Molitor said she would have liked to have seen the same effort from her team.

“We just played too careful, we have to play aggressively if we want to have success,” she said.

The Wildcats were led in kills by Muzzall with five. Miranda Thiel and freshman Jennifer Jansen added four apiece, while Kingma had three aces and 21 assists.

Oak Harbor is now 1-1 in league and 5-3 overall. They play their next match at 7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 11 at home against Monroe.

“We’re going to look ahead…this doesn’t put us out of districts or going to state,” Molitor said.