Despite an 8-mile bus ride that somehow felt like 40, the Bellevue Wolverine squads continued their strong mid-season play at Liberty on Monday night. 

 

The Varsity Wolverines showed no ill effects from their successful all-day tournament at Monroe on Saturday.  Bellevue started out hot with a Callie Weber kill followed by an Alexis Khuu ace and BHS rode the wave out to a 9-1 lead before a Patriot time out. A Holly Huard kill made it 15-3. The point of the set occurred after back to back Liberty blocks on the left side that BHS managed to cover. It led to a backset from Khuu to Ally Witham that she put down to make it 19-6. Liberty made a late run to make the close a more respectable 25-13.

​

Liberty rode the momentum from the end of game one to jump out to a 1-5 lead before a Witham kill. Naomi Chen-Mallouk got a block to climb back to 4-6 before Sophia Knapp to the ball to serve. A Jenna Kennan kill and Knapp ace highlighted a service run to stretch the lead to 9-6. In a 4 point stretch, Kennan had a kill and 2 aces to make it 16-13. A Weber block and a Weber kill made it 19-18. Huard got 2 more kills followed by Knapp’s second ace of the match to make it 22-19. BHS finished the game 25-20 to take an 2-0 match lead.

 

Holly Huard owned the beginning of game three with 3 kills, the last one from the back row, and BHS jumped to a 5-2 lead. Witham had a kill followed by an ace and the Wolverines took a 9-6 lead. Kennan had 3 kills in a rough stretch in the middle of the game when LHS serves caused the Wolverines problems. Hanging on to a slim 22-20 lead, Weber put one away emphatically. Chen-Mallouk seized the moment to put one straight down to make it 24-21. Senior Ally Witham sealed the win with a kill to finish the Patriots off, 25-21.

​

In the JV contest, the Wolverines faced their toughest opponent in Kingco and rallied for the win in 3 sets.

 

Liberty came out strong with aggressive serving and defense and started with a quick 9-1 lead over the Wolverines. The Wolverines had a couple of good rallies with Julia Bray serving 4 in a row contributing an ace and a deep corner kill to bring Liberty’ lead down to 4 at 8-12.  Her strong serving put Liberty on the defensive for a change and Meghan Weber scored a tip kill on an overpass to punctuate that run. Bellevue tried to keep it close and Liberty let them keep up for a few points but then pulled away with 2 4-point runs of their own.  The final score in the first set was 16-25.

 

The tide turned for Bellevue in the second set starting with a kill from Meghan Weber on the first point making it 1-0.  Liberty was never able to get a lead in the set from there.  The back row started to get their passing groove and teed up a beautiful set from Bridget Conroy to #8, Middle, Katie Sorrell for a spectacular kill with nothing but floor to contest it at 9-5.  Liberty got within 3 points a couple of times mid-set with some kills, but Bellevue stayed aggressive. Carly Burns stepped behind the line to serve at 17-13 and proceeded to rip serve after serve including 2 aces blowing through 8 more straight points.  The final two points were Katie Sorrell with a block and Carly with another rocket serve for the win at 25-12. 

 

Bellevue took that great finish from the second set and built even more momentum in game 3 where Bellevue held Liberty to only 4 points in that entire set.  #9 Natalie Hayes started the serving run this time with early kills from Sorrell, #5 Hannah Geffe and Conroy all in the first 4 points.  Liberty had a string of errors helped along by strong serving from Geffe, and then they finished them off with kills from Hayes, Bray and Conroy. 

 

Bellevue JV is still undefeated in the Kingco conference, with Liberty’s only losses coming from their 2 meetings with Bellevue this season.  The Wolverine C Team remained undefeated as well with a 2-1 victory (25-20, 25-19, 3-15).  

 

The Wolverines travel to Crossroads to take on the Interlake Saints on Wednesday in what is sure to be a good battle. Hope to see you all there.

​

Varsity Stats Leaders, Liberty

​

Aces:        Knapp 2, Weber 2

Kills:         Weber 10, Huard 7, Witham 6, Keenan 4

Digs:        Weber 14, Knapp 9, Burns 8, Khuu 7, Witham 6

Blocks:    Chen-Mallouk 3, Weber 2, Keenan 1, Witham 1, Khuu 1

Assists:    Khuu 24, Knapp 3, Sergeeff 2

​

Season Varsity Stats Leaders

​