Sequim saw a familiar foe — and one of the state’s best — in their final prep for the district tournament.
Host Bainbridge Island, ranked No. 3 in the state’s 2A RPI index, leaned on some heavy hitting from senior Holley McFadden and Zariyah Francis in a three-set sweep (25-17, 25-20, 25-12) of the Wolves in the Olympic League tourney title game on Nov. 2.
“Just getting to play was good,” Sequim coach Jennie Webber Heilman said following the match. “I think they got a little discouraged. I think they [Bainbridge] are going to win districts.”
With the second seed from the Olympic League, Sequim (11-3 in league, 11-5 overall) would likely get a first round bye and open play in the second round of the Class 2A West Central District Tournament, held Nov. 8-9 at Fife High School and Columbia Junior High.
The top four from the 12-team tourney advance to the class 2A state tourney, set for Nov. 15-16 in Yakima.
Bainbridge’s Spartans (14-0 in Olympic League, 15-2 overall), led the by the 6-3 McFadden, used a seven-point serving run to take the first set, 25-17.
Bainbridge looked to hold the edge in the second set but a rotation error, gave Sequim — the No. 17-ranked team by RPI — momentum and managed to knot the game at 20-20. However, Francis, Cate Torrell and Carmen MacCulloch had key kills to quell the Sequim rally, and Francis ended the set with an ace.
The Spartans then jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the third set and held on for the win.
Webber Heilman had high praise for libero Tiffany Lam, who finished with a team-high 10 digs.
“They adjusted where they were serving and hitting ([because of her],” the Sequim coach said.
SHS setter Kenzi Berglund had 14 assists and five digs.
“She was doing pretty good running all over the place,” Webber Heilman said.
Arianna Stovall paced the offense with seven kills, while teammate Rose Gibson was 10-of-10 serving with two aces.
Wolves cap regular season with three-set win
Sequim celebrated its seniors and locked down second place in the Olympic League after a 3-0 (25-9, 25-16, 25-12) sweep of Bremerton on Oct. 29.
After the Wolves wrapped up against the Knights, the team gathered around a smart phone to watch Bainbridge seal an unbeaten Olympic League regular season with a sweep of third-place North Kitsap.
“It was our senior night for Stovall and Destiny Bernard — and our last home game but we have lots more games to play, so there weren’t too many tears,” Webber Heilman said.
Webber Heilman said the Wolves posted their worst serving percentage of the season, 76%, off of their match goal of 90 percent.
“It was equal, everybody was struggling,” Webber Heilman said. “We did get 13 aces, so we did have some success on serves.
“Bremerton missed a lot of serves as well, and really weren’t putting the ball in play so we didn’t pass too many balls.”
Stovall led the Wolves with 11 kills and added four digs, two blocks and three aces.
Kassi Montero served 10-for-12 with five aces, four coming during a serving run in the third game.
Peninsula Daily News reporter Michael Carman contributed to this story.
