Wildcats win, Wolves lose as teams break 3-0 trend / Volleyball

By Jim Waller • October 12, 2017 1:30 am

Going into their matches this week, the Oak Harbor and Coupeville high school volleyball teams played a combined 16 matches, and all ended — win or lose — with the same score, 3-0.

The two clubs broke that pattern Tuesday, Oct. 10. Oak Harbor won 3-1 at Edmonds-Woodway, while Coupeville lost 3-1 to visiting Sequim.

Oak Harbor 3, Edmonds-Woodway 1

The 25-22, 25-19, 22-25, 25-22 win helped the Wildcats stay in the hunt for a playoff berth. The top nine teams qualify, and Oak Harbor sits in eighth place with five matches left.

The Wildcats (3-4, 4-5) are now a half game behind E-W (4-4, 5-5) in the Wesco standings and a half game up on Shorecrest (3-5, 3-7).

Oak Harbor will try to solidify its position when it hosts Mountlake Terrace (1-7, 2-8) at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 12.

Hailee Blau powered the offense in Tuesday’s match with 33 kills; Andrea Ruben pitched in with 41 assists.

On defense, Ceirra Dean recorded 20 digs, Ruben 10 and Cami Bristow nine.

Bristow also fired three aces.

Sequim 3, Coupeville 1

Fortunately for Coupeville, the loss came in a non-league match.

Last week Coupeville coach Cory Whitmore said he was looking forward to the contest because he knew Sequim, a 2A school, would be a good challenge for his club, which has strolled through its league schedule.

Sequim (6-4) provided that challenge in its 25-22, 17-25, 26-24, 25-21 win.

“I am excited with what I saw tonight,” Whitmore said after the match. “I thought we played well; we played fairly clean volleyball.”

The focus of the match, he said, was “hitting efficiency — when to be risky and when to play it smart.”

“I liked our maturity,” he added. “We handled the peaks and valleys well.”

Kyla Briscoe paced the offense with 12 kills, followed by Payton Aparicio, Katrina McGranahan and Emma Smith with five each; and Mikayla Elfrank had four.

Lauren Rose and Ashley Menges helped out with 18 and 13 assists, respectively.

Aparicio also chipped in with four aces, while Hope Lodell and Briscoe had two each.

Lodell led the defense with 25 digs, Aparicio had 18 and McGranahan nine. The team had seven blocks, and Elfrank and Smith had two each.

Coupeville closes out the regular season with five conference matches.

The Wolves (4-0, 6-3) go to Klahowya (3-1, 4-5) at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 17, and host Port Townsend (1-4, 2-7) at 5:45 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 19.