Volleyball: Sequim KOs Knights, tops Trojans

Olympic League standings

Olympic League standings

(as of Oct. 10)

Team Lg. Over.

North Kitsap 7-0 8-1

Sequim 6-1 7-1

Port Angeles 4-2 5-3

Olympic 3-4 4-6

Bremerton 3-5 5-5

Kingston 2-5 3-7

North Mason 0-7 0-8

After avoiding an upset at home against Bremerton, Sequim’s Wolves took care of business on the road and kept pace in the Olympic League standings, a step behind leader North Kitsap.

Sequim (6-1 in league, 7-1 overall) got eight kills each from Ella Christiansen and Adrienne Haggerty and six more from Tayler Breckenridge in a straight-sets win on the road against a tough Olympic Trojan squad on Oct. 6 (25-23, 25-23, 26-24).

“Olympic played much better than the first league match with them (Sept. 13, Sequim’s season-opener),” Sequim coach Jennie Webber Heilman said. “Ella and Adrienne led the offense from the middle (and) Sydney (Balkan) played amazing defense.”

Balkan paced the Sequim defense with 26 digs and added a 20-for-20 night with a six aces and eight assists, both team highs.

Sequim rebounded from a 10-4 deficit to take game one and held a 19-8 advantage in game two before seeing it nearly slip away.

Olympic jumped out to a 19-15 lead in game three — “We were having terrible passing difficulties” Webber Heilman said — but key serving from Balkan and attacks by Haggerty secured the win.

Two days prior at home, Sequim dropped the second game and nearly the third but recovered to knock off Bremerton in four (25-22, 22-25, 25-13, 25-15).

“We struggled in this match,” Webber Heilman said. “We lost the second game because we allowed an eight-point serving run.”

Haggerty and Balkan bailed out the Wolves with strong offensive and defensive games. Haggerty led the team with 25-of-26 on serves with seven aces and had 11 kills, tied with Christiansen for a team-high. She also had 10 digs. Balkan added 18 assists, five kills and 11 digs. Breckenridge chipped in nine kills, Lillian Oden had 10 assists and Kaila Sundquist had three kills.

Looking ahead

The Wolves were slated to host Coupeville on Oct. 11 — results were not available at press time.

Sequim takes on North Mason at home on Oct. 13 and plays at the Capital City Invite in Olympia on Oct. 15.

Sequim looks for some payback when they take on North Kitsap on the road Oct. 18, seeking to avenge their only loss of the season.

The Wolves then host Port Angeles on Oct. 20 and Kingston on Oct. 24 before finishing the league schedule at Bremerton on Oct. 25.

The Olympic League tournament is set for Oct. 27 and 29 in Port Angeles.