West Central Districts 

Mt. Rainier Wins Championship, Fife and Kennedy also to States

5 Nov. 2001:  The West Central District Championships at Fife High School today featured several great matches and near upsets.  The first round match between undefeated Fife and undefeated Sequim in Pool B lived up to its advance billing.  Sequim, led by setter Chelsea Pettibone and middle hitter Megan Thompson, won game one 15-7 with some outstanding hitting and blocking by Thompson coupled with Pettibone's terrific hustle.  Fife came back in game two 15-7 as left-handed setter Collese Dornan picked up the tempo with several sharp second ball kills and both Fife middle blockers seemed to adjust to Thompson, shutting down all but the most powerful attacks.  In the early part of the deciding game, Sequim jumped ahead as both Thompson and Alanna O'Hara, Sequim's other middle blocker, seemed to regain their confidence and scored a number of kills from the middle position, several on Fife overfeeds.  Pettibone continued to play great volleyball, and made a number of spectacular plays, including a very difficult save of what looked like an overfeed until she ran it down from her back row position, leaped and played it off the top of the net and back to her team.  But Fife refused to quit, and they slowly pulled back into the game as the middle blockers put the clamps back on middle, the passers did what passers are supposed to do, pass, and with better passing Dornan was able to get Fife's big hitters, Carly Reed, Darcy Scheidt and Lindsey Aspelund back in the game.  But it was almost too late.  Sequim had game and match point at 14-13, but was unable to convert.  From there, it was side-out volleyball for several serves, but in the end, it was Fife who scored with some up-tempo plays, and they won the game 16-14 to take the match.

In the other pool, White River met Pierce Division rival Washington in the second round.  The teams had split in the regular season, and Washington had taken second in the Division as White River lost one more match during the season, that being a five game affair against Peninsula on Oct. 16th.  But speculation that White River was fading in the stretch were premature.  Losing game one 7-15, White River won the second game 15-13, and then pulled away from Washington in the third game to win it 15-11.  Taking that momentum into the third round, White River took game one off Mt. Rainier 15-11.  But Mt. Rainier settled down and went back to their game which is basically serve tough, pass well, set well, block, and hit it really hard, and this proved effective against White River.  The final two games were 15-2, 15-2.

The fourth round saw Kennedy playing Sequim.  At this point Kennedy had defeated Highline 15-5, 15-1, and Sequim had lost to Fife.  So this was basically a do or die situation for Sequim, since only two teams would advance from the pool.  But Kennedy was ready.  The Lancer's big hitters Michelle Aurelio, Jordan Eckman and Christina Hengtgen pounded a number of kills, and Kennedy's block, featuring Alex Gates and Aurelio, was just too much.  The games were more competitive than the scores suggest, 15-6 and 15-4, and Kennedy worked hard for this victory.

The fifth round saw Kennedy playing Fife for the championship of Pool B, and Mt. Rainier playing Washington.  The latter match was Washington's last chance to help itself to save a State bid by throwing the Pool into a three way tie for first, and thus getting an opportunity to reverse the days results in the rally-point tie breakers.  But Mt. Rainier had learned its lesson against White River, and would have none of this.  Mt. Rainier played with good intensity, winning in two 15-6, 15-6.  This gave Mt. Rainier a match record of 3-0, and first place, and Washington fell to 1-2.

In the Fife-Kennedy match, both teams entered with 2-0 match records, so this was the match for first and second place in the Pool, and three-way ties were not a possibility.  Fife had defeated Highline in the third round 15-3, 15-1, and had sat out the next round watching Kennedy play Sequim.  In the first game, Kennedy seemed to be a little flat, as though they were winded by their previous match with Sequim.  They repeatedly tried tips and second ball hits in the middle.  But Fife anticipated every move, even to the point of spiking those attacks that they didn't block.  Fife won fairly easily 15-2.  Kennedy regained its momentum in the second game, but Fife continued to dominate the middle, and Kennedy just couldn't break this pattern.  Fife won the second game 15-11, and thus the match and with the match, first place in Pool B.

As the Tournament entered the final round, the second place position in Pool A was still up for grabs.  Washington had a 1-2 match record, White River was 1-1, and Evergreen was 0-2, and White River was playing Evergreen.   If Evergreen could win, it would create a three way tie for second, since all three teams would then have identical 1-2 records.  But White River easily defeated Evergreen 15-3, 15-4, thus completing pool play with a 2-1 record and a second place finish.  In the other pool, Highline played Sequim, and although both teams were out of the running for a State seed, they played a competitive and hard fought first game, Sequim winning 15-12.  At that point, the air seemed to go out of Highline's sails, and Sequim tidied things up with a quick 15-2 victory. 

The finals thus saw Mt. Rainier matched against Fife for the Championship, and Kennedy against White River for third place and the final invitation to the State Tournament.  The Kennedy-White River match was played first, and the hitting by Aurelio, Hengtgen and Eckman, coupled with some great blocks by Aurelio and Gates were too much for White River.  The final scores were 15-8, 15-7, Kennedy advancing to States.

The Mt. Rainier-Fife match was hard to predict.  Fife had not shown great power earlier in the tournament, but they used tempo effectively to keep Kennedy off balance, Dornan had been scoring almost at will on second balls, and their middle block had been devastating.  On the other hand, Mt. Rainier likes to pound the ball, and they pass and dig well.  It ended up being Mr. Rainier's match.  Mt. Rainier's setter, Emily Melver, kept Fife guessing with a few well-chosen second ball dumps, and when she did set it, Jaime Anderson and fast-improving Sophomore Monana Sau thumped the ball with enough authority that Fife couldn't control it.   Fife's Dornan got her share of kills, but her hitters weren't able to use up-tempo plays to score.  The first game was 15-9, Mt. Rainier.  The second game was looking a lot better for Fife until Jr. Melissa Rogge of Mt. Rainier began serving.  With the scored tied at 4-4, she aced Fife with four serves to the 12' to 13' area, working back and forth across Fife's 3-man receive.  Then she pumped in a deep serve to the right-back (#1) position that resulted a free ball return and another Mt. Rainier point.  She finally let Fife off the hook when she served into the net, but the damage had been done.  Six side-outs later, she was serving again, and she collected some more aces.  The final score was Mt. Rainier 15, Fife 6.  Mt. Rainier thus won the District Championship and is the District's number one seed to States.  The pool seeds for the State tournament will be posted in the web on Monday following some random draws that will be conducted on Sunday when all the District results are known.

Pool A Match Scores

Mt. Rainier defeated Evergreen, 15-1, 15-4

White River defeated Washingotn, 7-15, 15-13, 15-11

Mt. Rainier defeated White River, 11-15, 15-2, 15-2

Washington defeated Evergreen, 15-1, 15-7

Mt. Rainier defeated Washington, 15-6, 15-6

White River defeated Evergreen, 15-3, 15-4

Pool B Match Scores

Fife defeated Sequim, 7-15, 15-7, 16-14

Kennedy defeated Highline, 15-5, 15-1

Fife defeated Highline, 15-3, 15-1

Kennedy defeated Sequim, 15-6, 15-4

Fife defeated Kennedy, 15-2, 15-11

Sequim defeated Highline, 15-12, 15-2

Third Place

Kennedy defeated White River, 15-8, 15-7.  Kennedy to States.

Championship

Mt. Rainier defeated Fife, 15-9, 15-6.  Both to States.

WIAA 3A State Volleyball Tournament

Pool assignments for the State Tournament will be drawn on Sunday, Nov. 4th, following completion of the District Tournaments.  Sixteen teams will be invited, three from the West Central District (incorrectly called the SeaMount District on the WIAA web site.)  The format, Friday pool play followed by Saturday playoffs, will be the same as last year.

Previous Articles:

Saturday Schedule

2 Nov. 2001:  Sequim defeated Peninsula, 15-2, 15-4, Thursday night, winning seed 4 in Pool B, as shown below.  The West Central Districts are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 3rd, at Fife High School.  The teams' divisional match records are shown in parentheses and the indicated links are hooked to bookmarks in the divisional match results tables (except for Sequim.)

Play begins at 9:00 am.  Pool play is scheduled to end by 4:30 pm whereupon the first place finishers from each pool will play one match for the District Championship, and the second place finishers will play a match for third place and the final seed to States.  All others are eliminated with the pool play.

Mt. Rainer takes First on Flip

29 Oct. 2201:  This evening at the Seamount/King Division coaches meeting, Mt. Rainier won the coin toss for the first seed in Pool A.  Kennedy, Mt. Rainier's Co-Champion in regular-season Divisional play takes the second seed in Pool B.  Each team had a 12-1 record in Divisional play.

Peninsula Slated to Play at Sequim on Nov. 1st

The match for the fourth seed in Pool B of the West Central District tournament is scheduled to be played at Sequim on Nov. 1st.  The match starts at 6 PM.   This is a loser out match.  Peninsula finished the regular season with a 7-5 Divisional match record, splitting with White River, and losing two matches to both Fife and Washington.  Sequim finished it season with a 14-0 record in the Nisqually League, which is comprised of 2A and 3A teams.  Sequim has had some tournament exposure to top rated 3A teams, Camas and Seattle Prep to name two, and they have been competitive if not victorious.  They did manage to take 3rd in this year's Mariner High School tournament.

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Last modified: 11/29/05