The 2015 Bellevue Wolverine volleyball team kicked off their season with a game against Seattle Prep.  With a new coaching staff and only 5 returning lettermen from last year’s state tournament team, the night began with a lot of excitement and new faces on the Bellevue team.

 

The first set started off with back and forth action until sophomore Holly Huard had 2 kills followed by a sophomore Callie Weber service ace. The Wolverines took a commanding 17-11 lead on the hustle play of the night when Weber chased a ball all the way to the back gym wall, kept it in play and won the point. Huard got another kill for the 24th point and Weber served the game out for a 25-18 first set win.

 

The Seattle Prep Panthers came out firing in the second set gaining a 9-3 lead behind a couple of service runs. The Wolverines could never pull the score closer than 4 points and wound up dropping the second set 15-25.

 

Third set started off with sophomore Alexis Khuu behind the service line. She proceeded to smash 2 aces on the way to a 5-0 lead. Weber had 3 solid kills early on and the Wolverines ran out to a 14-7 lead. The Panthers fired back to close the score to 14-11. Sophomore Sophia Knapp started her service run with an ace and then ran the lead to 19-11 behind a senior Katie Griffin kill then followed by a senior Denali Conway stuff block. The Panthers scratched back to 22-16 and the Wolverines struggled to close it out. Prep took at 24-23 lead but Weber smashed home a kill to tie it at 24-24. Weber backed it up with an ace but BHS couldn’t finish it there as it went to 25-25 and then 26-26. Knapp took the ball to the service line and then Huard slammed home the 27th point. The Wolverines took set point with a pass from Knapp, a set from sophomore Liv Sergeeff, and a middle monster smash by Conway.

Set four started similar to set three with Khuu serving up aces on the first 3 serves. The Wolverines jumped out to an early lead until Prep brought it back to 13-11 score. Conway made the athletic play of the night at the net. After miss-timing her middle hit, she was able to still hit the ball with her left hand just over the net falling to the floor to take a 14-11 lead. Then, Weber took over at the net and had 3 nice kills stretching the lead to 19-15. After the longest rally of the match, sophomore Mina Didijer had a nice tip for a 20-15 lead. Katie Griffin finished off the 25th point with a perfectly placed tip for a 25-18 final score.

 

All fourteen Wolverines played and contributed to earn the win and start 1-0.  3-1 (25-18, 15-25, 28-26, 25-18)