Rebels Cause Headaches for Wolverines
The Bellevue Wolverines looked to bounce back from the first loss of the year taking on the 1-3 Juanita Rebels at home.
The Wolverines started slowly, but closed the gap to 10-14 behind 5 early kills from Jordan Meyers. A Mena Dedijer ace made it 16-19, and back-to-back kills from Naomi Chen-Mallouk brought it to 19-22. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough as The Rebels took game 1, 22-25.
The Wolverines came out a swinging in game 2 and jumped to a 6-1 lead behind a couple of Holly Huard kills. BHS extended the lead to 19-13 after a Jenna Keenan block, but JHS stormed back. Chen-Mallouk got a kill to tie it up at 21. Tied at 24, Sophia Knapp, who always seems to be on serve with the game on the line, served a couple of winners with the final point being a block from setter Alexis Khuu and a 26-24 win.
Game 3 started off slowly again for BHS falling behind 1-6. They crawled back to 11-14 behind several Callie Weber kills but it wasn’t enough as the Rebels roared out to a 14-25 win.
Jordan Meyers had a kill and then a block to give BHS an early 5-2 lead in game 4. But Juanita, full of confidence went on a run to take a 6-9 lead. Holly Huard then took the serve an rattled off 5 points including back to back aces and the Wolverines climbed out to an 11-9 lead. But, Juanita wasn’t going away and despite a run of 4 Weber kills, the game was still tight. Up 22-18, Holly Huard got a hat trick of kills with a roll shot, a hard spike into the block, and a cross court beauty to go up 24-18. Chen-Mallouk finished it off with a kill and BHS won game 4, 25-19.
The deciding game 5 started with a Weber kill to make it 1-1. A Huard kill made it 2-1. Another Huard kill knotted the score at 3-3. But, Juanita was poised and smelling the victory. Down 5-7, Weber had the kill of the night going straight down and out the gym door. Down 7-8 JHS had a kill but the were called for being in the net and the score was 8-8. Dedijer found the cross-court tip to go up 10-8. Chen-Mallouk had a kill followed by a Weber ace to put the Wolverines up 12-9. A Huard kill made it 13-10 followed by another Huard kill to take a commanding 14-11 lead. The Rebels took their final time out to set their game plan and it worked as they rattled off 5 straight points to take game 5, 14-16, and the victory back to Kirkland.
The Wolverines look to get back in the win column as they travel to Redmond on Wednesday to take on the hard hitting and second place Mustangs.
Varsity Stats Leaders, Juanita Match
Aces: Weber 2, Khuu 2, Huard 2, Dedijer 2
Kills: Huard 16, Weber 16, Chen-Mallouk 9, Meyers 5
Digs: Weber 18, Knapp 13, Burns 11
Blocks: Keenan 2, Meyers 2, Khuu 2
Assists: Khuu 39, Sergeeff 3, Knapp 3, Eide 3
Varsity vs. Juanita
JV and C Teams Remain Undefeated in Kingco
Stretching their winning streaks to 6 matches, the JV and C Wolverine squads remained undefeated and atop the Kingco standings.
Monday’s JV game against Juanita was teed up to be a great matchup between the only two remaining undefeated JV teams in Kingco 3A, and Bellevue came out on top winning 25-19, 25-13, 15-5.
The JV Wolverines opened the match with a clean kill from #5, Hannah Geffe, and then traded points evenly with the Rebels for the first 2/3 of the game. Bellevue was aggressive and ended up with 4 net violations, but also with kills by Julia Bray at 4-6, an Natalie Hayes at 7-8 and 2 more from Geffe at 10-10 and 13-13.
Bellevue then took the lead and the momentum with a perfect pass from Carly Burns off of a hard driven Juanita ball set up beautifully so Bray could put it away. Bellevue lengthened that lead by 3 more points served by Geffe, punctuated by a block and kill from #14, Mason Mukhar and Juanita was unable to recover the lead for the remainder of the game. Conroy also served aggressively throughout that game putting the Rebels on their heels. The final blow of Game 1 came from another middle kill from #8, Katie Sorrell.
Juanita answered Bellevue with multiple attacks of their own, but the passing squad of Burns, Hayes, Conroy and Geffe was “in the right place at the right time,” said Coach Jamie Pearsall and were able to put up nice passes off of Juanita’s hard drives.
Bellevue kept the momentum in Game 2 where their serving game went up another level. Conroy set the stage with an ace and another next deep serve putting Juanita out of system and open to a block by Haley Cook. Hannah Geffe picked up where Conroy left off and racked up 6 more straight points including an overpass killed by Meghan Weber, and a couple more aces after that.
After another net call against Bellevue and a Juanita service error, #10 Claire Surbeck took her turn at the service line to rack up four more points including two aces. Juanita kept hitting but Bellevue’s serving pressure from everyone in the rotation never let Juanita get in system to utilize their hard hitters.
The Rebels were really deflated in Game 3 and the serving clinic continued with Weber putting up 4 in a row with an ace and back row kill. The Wolverines were really hitting stride when #4, Lauren Gorder teed up an amazing bump set to set up Sailor Aniker for a tight cut shot for a kill bringing the score to 10-3. Bray hit another ace and then Gorder teed up one more great set for Weber to get a kill and errors did the rest ending the game at 15-5.
Coach Jamie gave huge credit to the team for their mental perseverance though the multiple tight net calls early in the game, and staying so aggressive and consistent with their serving.
In C Team action, the Wolverines secured another win, 2-1 (25-20, 25-21, 13-15). The team hung tough against a talented Rebel squad, including one highlight reel play by Livie McQuain that involved digging one out of the seats.
The JV and C Wolverines will face a tough Redmond squad on Wednesday to try to maintain their perfect conference records.
JV vs. Juanita
C vs. Juanita