Wildcats take third at Kingco tourney

Published 8:27 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

MERCER ISLAND – The Mount Si Wildcats girls’ volleyball team rolled into the postseason on a rather difficult note last Monday in the final match of the regular season.

With an automatic SeaKing District playoff berth on the line, the Wildcats fell to the Mercer Island Islanders in four games on the road.

Scores for the match were 25-18, 25-20, 20-25 and 25-18 as the Islanders took advantage of inconsistent play by Mount Si to seal the victory, a rather fitting farewell for six Mercer Island seniors on senior night, led by star Callie Webster.

Webster, who would like to play college volleyball somewhere in the Northeast, possibly at the University of New Hampshire, was overjoyed at all she has accomplished in her four years in the Islanders program run by head coach Dino Annest.

“I remember sitting on the bench during my first senior night when I was a freshman and thinking I’d never be there. It’s been rough. It’s been a change of three positions from starting defensive setter to right side to outside to setter to all over the place,” said Webster.

Last Thursday in the Kingco Tournament at Liberty High School, the Wildcats split a pair of matches, clinching a berth in the SeaKing District Tournament.

First, Mount Si beat Sammamish in four games, but any hopes of avenging its Monday loss to Mercer Island fell by the wayside as the Islanders rolled over the Wildcats in a three-game sweep.

Last Saturday, the Wildcats met Newport for third place, and unlike the previous two meetings this season, both of which went the full five games, this one was short and sweet, as Mount Si dominated from the opening serve en-route to a three-game sweep.

“Solid match today,” said Mount Si coach Bonnie Foote. “I want them to remember what this feels like so that we can learn how to play consistent, because we’ve just had a rocky road and every time we play good teams we seem to just kind of go AWOL [absent without leave] sometimes. I just want them to play a higher level of volleyball.”

Senior Marissa Hill’s strong play was the catalyst to the 25-22, 25-17, 25-21 win.

“I think we did an awesome job today. We had a good practice [last Friday]. Just fundamentally I think we were on today and we’re just keeping up the good fundamentals and we’ll play through,” Hill said.

The Knights, despite staying close most of the way, only had three leads on the Wildcats all match. That domination was what Mount Si was looking for after a rather tough week of games.

On Thursday, the Wildcats will open the SeaKing District Tournament at Liberty against Eastside Catholic, the Metro’s No. 6 seed, but among the top finishers at state last year. Sophomore Xandy Evans, making her first trip to districts as a Mount Si varsity volleyball player, is excited about what lies ahead.

“I’m really excited to go to districts. I went and watched last year and it was a really cool experience because there’s so much more competition, and I really think we can go to state if we play like we did today,” Evans said.

She added that she is also ready for the challenge.

“I expect a lot of competition. I expect them to be really good, but I know we can do it. I know if we just focus that we can take them,” Evans said.

First serve in the loser-out game is at 5:30 p.m. Should the Wildcats win, they would face Bainbridge at 7:30 p.m. The Spartans finished as Metro’s No. 2 seed, but are ranked high in the state 3A volleyball polls.