A trio of South Puget Sound League North teams are headed to state, including a surprise, out of the West Central District tournament held at Kentwood High Nov. 4-5.
Kentwood won its first two matches of the tournament to punch its ticket on Nov. 4 while Kent-Meridian, the surprise state-bound team, bounced back after a tough loss to eventual district champion Bellarmine Prep in the first round.
Tahoma went 1-1 on the first day, beating division rival Kentridge in four games before losing to Olympia, which earned the second seed out of the district.
Unlike a year ago when Tahoma was done in two at the district tournament coming in with high expectations to get back to state, the Bears had to claw a bit to punch their ticket, but they bounced back after the loss on the first day.
Tahoma put together a 3-0 sweep of Central Kitsap in a winner-to-state loser out match on Nov. 5 then beat Kent-Meridian in five games to earn the sixth seed out of the district while the Royals are the No. 7 seed to state. Tahoma takes on Mead out of Spokane at 1:30 p.m. on Friday at Saint Martin’s University.
Kent-Meridian had a tough road but somewhere between the second and third games in a loser-out match against Union it dug deep.
Maybe it was Assistant Coach Raven Northrup who got the girls attention when she told them they looked like the match was lost, that the looks on their faces told her they had already given up.
The Royals went out and proved their coach wrong.
Led by junior outside hitter Chloe Watson and setter Deidrianna Laban, Kent-Meridian fought back, winning 3-2 including a 25-21 victory in the third game, a 25-14 victory in the fourth and a 15-13 in the decisive fifth.
Kent-Meridian was fired up when they took on Skyview the next day, winning 3-1 (25-19,16-25,25-15,25-17) to punch its ticket to state, its first trip since 1998. The last time the Royals brought home hardware from the state volleyball tournament was in 1994 when they finished third. K-M gets Woodinville at 3:15 p.m. in the first round of state.
Kentwood coach Cindy Seims, whose team was no stranger to adversity in the tournament either, said the Conquerors are happy for Kent-Meridian’s success.
“Our team went and cheered them on in their game against Skyview,” Seims wrote in an email. “Gave me even more Kent pride to see our Conks cheer on the Royals. I am a Kentridge grad, so, I love Kent schools!”
In the first match of the tournament, Kentwood had to beat perennial volleyball power Graham-Kapowsin, and it took five games to do it.
It was a typical balanced offensive attack from the Conquerors with setter Kacie Seims (45 assists) spreading the ball out to Mikaela Ballou, who tallied 15 kills and four blocks, Mele Halahuni who racked up 12 kills, and Sarah Toeaina who finished with 10 kills and five blocks.
Kentwood made it to the district semi-final match thanks to a sweep of Skyview, the team K-M beat to get to state, in which Kacie Seims tossed up 32 assists to Ballou who had 23 kills, Halahuni who had 13 kills, Lauren Hackett with eight kills.
Libero Tess Manthou had 14 digs in that match while Emily Altobelli added 10.
Kentwood lost to Puyallup in the third-fourth game and will be the No. 4 seed out of the district to state. Kentwood gets Kamiak at 3:15 on Friday.
