It was a good night all around, literally, for seniors at Kennedy High School.

"Seniors Night" had a lot of senior classmates cheering from the opposite bleachers from the rest of the folk who were altogether watching their undefeated Seamount League volleyball team beat visitor Renton, 25-8, 25-22, and, 25-14, Wednesday, Oct. 24.

The Lancers led their league again, going 14-0 there and 19-1-1 overall. But the one loss was to a 4A school (Kennedy is 3A). Their loss, not to mention tie, was to Edmonds-Woodway in a tournament way back on Sept. 8.

So not many teams have come close to beating the Lancers this year. In fact none in the Seamount have got as much as a game, let alone a match, against them.

Time was for sub-districts last weekend, then, districts is this weekend, and then state is the weekend after that in Kennewick. Last year, the Lancers finished second in the state.

We are expecting to do good things," said Lancers head coach Tom Muckerheide. "I think we have a good team. I will know more after sub-districts. We have a tough district. Our district sends seven teams to state."

Speaking of "expecting,'" Muckerheide was expecting a boy to come into his life suddenly on the Renton game day.

But he showed up midway through this Renton game and just watched his girls come back in game two in the latter stages to win and then seal victory with an easy game three of seniors dominating.

"My wife had a boy," said Muckerheide. "They (the team) weren't expecting me to make it to the game, but my wife let me loose."

Boy or girl? What's his name?

"Joseph," said Muckerheide, the longtime coach at Kennedy.

Joseph?

That's a leadership name, biblically speaking. Joseph led Egypt and his own Israeli family during a time of famine.

But that's not to say anything more than this Catholic-based school has had, ironically or not so ironically, a great leader in Muckerheide for many, many years now.

But this was seniors night, so let's get to why senior Paula Miles thought this game was so much fun.

"It was our night. It was fun because we all got to play together," said Miles, speaking of the seniors all starting in the game and playing a lot more than usual.

The seniors were in good control in game one, jumping out to a 16-3 lead, with Kayleigh Fulton providing good serving from 2-2 to 10-2 -- and credit her with ace serves from 5-2 to 7-2. And, credit Ashley Smith with two kills and Miles with two kills.

Then came game two and Renton was in that one close throughout, actually leading 3-2, and , then a littler later, 15-12, and, then a little later, 18-15, and, still later, 21-19. But, behind good play from junior Ashley Eneliko, the Lancers came back. Eneliko slammed home four kills at good points in the game to not give Renton too much of a lead. Her kills came at 6-6, 12-10, 16-15, 20-18. All the times Eneliko got her kills her team was behind. So, she did all that and she provided an ace, too, to make it 15-14, Renton.

"Tonight was senior night," said Eneliko. "I only played the second game. We tried to do the best we could when we were down points."

The Lancers fortunately were only down points in that second game as the seniors again mostly played in game three and they handled things. After Renton led, 3-2, it was all Lancers as they went up 10-5 on an Emily Jovanovich kill and then 19-12, 20-13, on a Smith kill and a Miles kill. Meghan Wheeler, one of the many senior names the senior bleachers section chanted during the game,

"Meghan (pause) Wheeler," or chanting another senior's name was what senior fans did when good plays were made by the seniors on the court against Renton. Wheeler, by the way, had a kill in game three as well as two blocks.

So, now on to districts for the Lancers after doing what was expected to the Indians and everyone else they played in league.

"We put a lot of hard work in and we've really bonded as a team," said Miles. "So it should work out."

And what does Muckerheide think is a good reason to expect good things from yet another Lancers team?

Joseph.

"We have good leadership," said Muckerheide

From who?

"From our seniors," said Muckerheide.