The second place Bellevue Wolverines looked to knock off first place, and undefeated in the league, Mercer Island, on Monday night.

 

The crowd showed up for this top flight match up. The BHS band was in full effect as was the student section. MI didn’t waste any time jumping out to a 1-7 lead in game one. The Wolverines stayed at the kind of margin until Holly Huard got back to back kills to make it 10-14. Naomi Chen-Mallouk kept the comeback going with a kill to close the gap to 12-14. But, the Islanders opened the lead back up to 17-23 and looked to close it out. The Wolverines played inspired ball keeping many points alive and behind an Ally Witham ace closed the gap to 22-23. After a side out, a Witham kill down the line made it 23-24. Callie Weber got the serve and deposited an ace to tie it at 24-24. After an Islander point, Huard got the kill to knot it up again at 25. Mercer Island fed their junior outside hitter, Kelly Behrbaum, on the last two points and she put them away. Game one goes to MI, 25-27.

 

Bellevue looked to keep the momentum of their first game comeback going but MI wasn’t having it as the jumped out to another big lead, 0-7, behind the serving of UW commit, Natalie Robinson. BHS kept trying to get back into it and after a mad scramble, with bodies all over the floor, Sophia Knapp set up Witham for the kill to make it 6-16. Back to back blocks by Huard and Chen-Mallouk narrowed the gap to 12-19. BHS got as close as 18-23, but the comeback was squashed and MI took the game, 19-25.

 

Determined to make it a match, Bellevue turned to tide and got an early 3-1 lead. Consecutive Weber kills made it 9-10 as the score remained close. Weber took another feed from Alexis Khuu and put it away with style to make it 11-12. But, the Islanders started to pull away behind the setting and all-around play of Robinson. A Huard kill got BHS to 16-19, but that was a close as it got. MI took the game 18-25 and the match 3-0.

 

Thank you to the crowd who showed up for the match to watch two high quality volleyball teams. The Wolverines look to avenge an early season upset as they travel to Juanita on Wednesday night. We hope to see you there and at Senior night next Monday versus third place Redmond.

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In JV action, the Wolverines hung tough against a strong MI squad and won in two games, 25-21 and 25-20.  In a match that featured many long, drawn-out points, the Wolverines showed their resolve and remained undefeated in Kingco at 12-0.  Unfortunately, after a string of 11 wins, the C Team dropped a tight one 10-25, 25-17, 12-15.  Despite the loss, the C Team remains atop the Kingco C standings.

 

Varsity Stats Leaders, Mercer Island

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Aces:        Knapp 1, Weber 1, Witham 1, Khuu 1, Huard 1

Kills:         Huard 10, Weber 9, Witham 3, Keenan 2, Chen-Mallouk 2

Digs:        Knapp 14, Witham 8, Burns 6, Weber 6, Huard 3

Blocks:    Chen-Mallouk 2, Keenan 1, Huard 1

Assists:    Khuu 26

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