The streak is over — and that’s a good thing for Sequim High’s volleyball squad.
The Wolves broke through in their longtime rivalry with North Kitsap with a 3-1 road victory on Oct. 24, snapping a 28-game losing streak to the league powerhouse.
Arianna Stovall led Sequim (10-3 in Olympic League,10-4 overall) with 15 kills and two blocks, and Rose Gibson added 11 kills and four aces to help SHS overcome the Vikings 25-13, 17-25, 25-21 and 25-18.
The victory moved SHS into a tie with NK for second place in the league standings with one match remaining for each team.
“It was a total team effort — including all the girls cheering from the bench,” Sequim coach Jennie Webber Heilman said.
Kenzi Berglund had 32 assists and 12 digs, Kassi Montero was 20-of-21 serving with a team-high six aces and libero Tiffany Lam added 15 digs for Sequim.
“Kenzi was very smart with her setting choices plus [she] had 12 digs because NK was targeting her on defense,” Webber Heilman said.
The Sequim coach praised Sydney Clark, who finished 12-of-13 serving, and for her passes on defense.
Sequim’s most recent win over North Kitsap was Oct. 4, 2012, en route to a perfect league record and berth in the 2A state tournament.
Since then, NK has ruled the rivalry for 28 consecutive matches (including league and district tourney match-ups), though Sequim — now No. 16 in the stat’s RPI rankings — had pushed the Vikings to five sets seven times.
This time around — despite some issues with the officiating, Webber Heilman said — the Wolves were the victors.
“I have never been so upset with poor officiating … after we had won a match,” she said.
SHS rips Roughriders
A strong effort from the service line helped propel Sequim to a three-game sweep of rival Port Angeles on the road on Oct. 22.
Berglund had a big game for the Wolves with 24-of-25 serving — including four of the team’s nine aces — and added 26 assists and two blocks as Sequim won 25-12, 25-11 and 25-20.
The third game wound up being a comeback for SHS after falling behind 12-3.
“We … played great defense and had some key hits and tough serves,” Webber Heilman said, as Sequim pulled to just two points back at 20-18. That’s when Berglund took over, serving seven points in a row — with two aces — to close out the game.
Gibson was 13-of-14 serving and had five kills and nine digs, as SHS served 72-of-76 overall (95%) to meet the team’s goal of at least 90% serving.
Stovall had a team-high 12 kills while Brianna Palenik had six and Clark added four. Lam paced the defense with a team-high nine digs. Stovall had five blocks.
Sequim was scheduled to host Bremerton on Oct. 29; results were unavailable at press time.
Looking ahead
The Wolves kick off the postseason at the Olympic League tournament on Saturday, Nov. 2, in Kingston.
The West Central District tourney is set for Nov. 8-9 at Fife High School, with the top four teams advancing to the class 2A state tournament, set for Nov. 15-16 at the Yakima Valley Sundome in Yakima.
