Volleyball: Wolves takes Olympic League’s No. 2 seed to districts

By Michael Dashiell • November 2, 2016 1:30 am

Olympic League standings (final)

Team Lg. Over.

North Kitsap 12-0 13-1

Sequim 10-2 12-2

Kingston 6-6 7-8

Port Angeles 6-6 7-7

Olympic 5-7 6-9

Bremerton 2-10 4-10

North Mason 1-11 2-12

Twelve regular season games put the North Kitsap Vikings on top of the Olympic League and Sequim just behind.

An extra pair of games didn’t change that ranking Saturday.

Sequim’s Wolves knocked off Kingston before falling to the host Vikings on Oct. 29, sending them to the West Central District tourney this weekend needing at least two wins to advance to the state 2A tourney.

Sequim opens district play at 3:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma, against the South Puget Sound League’s No. 8-seeded team; as of Monday, that seed had not been announced.

The top six teams from the 12-team tournament that features top squads from the Olympic and South Puget Sound leagues advance to the 2A state tournament.

The Wolves opened the Olympic League tourney strong, knocking off Kingston’s Buccaneers in three games (25-23, 25-19, 25-11).

Adrienne Haggerty led the team with seven kills and 17 digs while Sydney Balkan had eight aces and was 24-of-24 from the service line. Balkan had seven of those aces in the match-clinching third game, serving 12 points in a row.

“We were hitting well and not making many hitting errors,” Sequim coach Jennie Webber Heilman said. “Tayler (Breckenridge) and Isabelle (Dennis) were also doing a good job covering the court on defense.”

The Wolves advanced to the title game but fell in three sets (25-14, 25-14, third game score not available).

Haggerty had a team-high nine kills while Jadyn Overby-Morgison had four. Balkan led the team with 13 assists and Breckenridge added 10 digs, also a team-high.

“All three games we started out well,” Webber Heilman said, “(but in) all three games we allowed two of their players to get serving runs. We were just not able to get enough kills as a team to keep up with NK.”

Sequim could wind up playing the Vikings once more in the district tournament, as early at the tourney semifinals on Nov. 5.

“We will need to pass better so we can get some better attacking from our hitters at districts, if we want to advance to state,” Webber Heilman said.

SHS gets Senior Night victory, road win caps regular season

In the final home match of their prep careers, seven Wolves went out with a win.

Seniors Balkan, Haggerty, Overby-Morgison, Ella Christiansen, Lillian Oden, Maddie Potts and Kaila Sundquist helped the Wolves sweep aside Kingston in three games (25-23, 25-8, 25-23) on Oct. 24 at Rick Kaps Gymnasium in Sequim.

Haggerty led the team with five kills while Balkan and Breckenridge added four kills each. Haggerty dominated the net with five blocks and Oden added a team-high nine assists.

“We went a little flat in the third game but Tayler helped us get back in the match with a six-point run,” Webber Heilman said.

Bremerton kept it close in game one, but the Wolves proved too much in their final postseason warm up, topping the Knights in three games (25-21, 25-6, 25-19) on Oct. 25.

“After a slow start in the first game, we dominated the match,” Webber Heilman said.

Haggerty led the team with nine kills and four blocks while Christiansen had four kills and five aces.

Oden, who had a team-high 10 assists and added nine digs, was 12-of-13 on serves.

Dennis had a team-high 12 digs. “Isabelle was playing great defense,” her coach said.