Mercer Island prepares for volleyball showdown
Published 9:11 am Tuesday, September 27, 2011
On Thursday evening one team is going to leave the Mercer Island High School gym with the first league loss of the year. Whether it will be Mercer Island or Mount Si remains to be seen, but for the moment, both teams are enjoying a perfect start to the KingCo season.
“We are definitely playing really well,” said head coach Susan McKay. “The biggest thing for me that I am seeing is improvement at every practice and game.”
The Islanders started off with a 7-0 record in KingCo, and are 7-1 overall. Mount Si has a 6-0 league record, and is 9-3 overall.
This past week, the Islanders beat Bellevue on Monday, Sept. 19 and the following Thursday, the Islanders dominated Sammamish, keeping the Totems to just 12 points in the first two games. On Monday, Sept. 26 the Islanders traveled to Renton to paly Liberty, winning again in three games.
McKay said a large portion of the team’s offense is coming from four players, Lorial Yeadon, Sara Lindquist, Lottie MacAulay and Kris Brackmann, but “the whole team is playing well, too.”
But the big test will be Thursday.
Last year in the two teams’ first meeting, Mount Si won 3-0, but the second time around, Mercer Island forced a game four.
This season, McKay said the Islanders are focused on blocking the tall Wildcats, one of the tallest teams in the league.
“We’ll work on moving our hits around and practicing our blocking,” said the coach.
The Islanders will play Mount Si in the MIHS main gym beginning at 7 p.m. on Thursday. JV and C teams play at 5:30 p.m.
