Seattle Christian combined total team play with renewed enthusiasm for a 3-1 non league girls home volleyball win against Eatonville on Wednesday, Sept. 12.
SCS now stands at 2-1overall and 1-0 in NIsqually 1A League action. Eatonville moved to 1-3 overall.
"We've had some second set lulls, but the girls really fought back tonight," said first-year Warrior head coach Aubrey Fox.
In a hotly contested first set, Seattle Christian overcame a 4-0 deficit for a 4-4 tie. SCS later went on a four point surge that Eatonville countered to deadlock the set at 10-all. See-saw action resulted in six more ties en route to a 17-17 score.
With the Warriors clinging to a 20-19 edge, SCS powered to victory behind the serve of Molli Ronish. Ashley Schroder's lefty cross court kill moved the Warriors into a 23-19 advantage before Ronish boomed a big serve that resulted in a winner. Madelyn Weber's put away shot at net secured the set win for the home team.
Capitalizing upon Seattle Christian mistakes, Eatonville also found numerous holes in a passive Warrior defense to go on Cruiser control and forge huge leads of 12-2 and 18-4 in the second set.
Like coming out of winter hibernation, the Warriors suddenly became re-energized. Outside hitter Abigail Sauer and middle hitter Megan Bryant spearheaded the SCS front line for a furious flurry that trimmed the Warrior deficit to 18-10. SCS was within 23-15 before Eatonville closed it out at 25-15.
"We made a lot of mistakes in the second set, but were able to get our focus back," said Bryant, who finished with 18 SCS kills. "It was more positive thinking and being aggressive."
Buoyed by the excellent effort at the end of the second set, the home team overcame a 5-3 third set disadvantage with good front line play to lead 8-5 in a more aggressive mode. A five point flurry jumped SCS into a 15-8 lead as the hitters benefited from good sets behind solid serving. The Warrior lead was never less than six points the rest of the way.
Leading 19-11, Seattle Christian gained side out and closed out the set with Makenna Wallingford joining the front line behind the Ronish serve to close out a 25-11 win.
"Their middle was wide open, so I just tried to get it there with tough serves," said defensive specialist Ronish, who had a pair of aces. "Our front line was really good at net. They slammed everything that was close to them."
Midway through the fourth set, SCS ran off five consecutive points to enlarge a slim lead into an 11-5 control. Seattle Christian utilized serve and volley tactics well with a very stout defense as the team slowed the Cruisers down, leading 14-6 and 17-8.
Seattle Christian worked for a side out and an 18-9 margin ahead of a 7-0 run to victory on Hanna Kumasaka's big serve.
Coach Fox is in her first head coaching position after six years as an assistant in the Southern Oregon area. Prior to that, she played NCAA Division II volleyball at Northwest Nazarene University in Idaho.
"I'm really excited this year," she concluded. "There is a lot of raw talent. We're hoping to refine the talent and be competitive. There's a lot of young players. The key is to work on specific skills to take it to the next level. We had a big win at Cedar Park Christian to end its home winning streak that had reached eight years."
Nicole Mumm, Molli Ronish, Megan Bryant, Makenna Wallingford, Kellie Kumasaka and Benita Beale are seniors on the roster while Hanna Kumasaka is a junior. Sophomores on the player roster are Ashley Schroder, Abigail Sauer, Madelyn Weber and Alyssa Baucom.
Assisting Fox is coach Agnesa Lord.
