A shaky start against a familiar foe at the 3A Sea-King district tournament may have had the members of the Mercer Island volleyball team experiencing flashbacks.
So with a couple matches left and a state tournament berth at stake, the Islanders made a point of doing everything they could to prove the slow start was nothing more than just a phase.
After falling to Lakeside in the district semifinal round, the Islanders swept their matches with Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic to finish third at Sea-King and advance to the state tournament next weekend in Kennewick.
It was the second-straight year Lakeside triumphed over the Islanders at districts, winning 17-25, 25-22, 23-25, 20-25 Saturday morning at Juanita High School. Lakeside later fell in three sets to Holy Names Academy in the district finals.
“I think that we played nervous,” Mercer Island coach Susan Rindlaub said. “Our offense was really good, we hit well, but we missed a lot of serves which is really uncharacteristic for our team. Maybe it was a little bit of thinking about how we lost to them last year. Lakeside played an amazing match and made very few mistakes, but we made too many easy mistakes on our side.”
“They played great and we just didn’t show up to play as a team, but it definitely got better throughout the day,” senior Jemma Yeadon said. “It definitely made us realize that we have to come out and take this. State has been the goal, and no one is going to hand it to us.”
Mercer Island bounced back with sharper serving, and coincidentally enough, dispatched both Seattle Prep and Eastside Catholic in identical 25-18, 25-12, 25-12 matches.
Yeadon led the way with 29 kills, 31 digs and three aces in the two wins, but it was a solid effort all around. Adara Hamilton had 24 kills and four aces, Kelly Behrbaum had 18 kills and four aces, Tess Hendelman had 22 digs and three aces, and setter Natalie Robinson posted nearly 40 assists in each match.
“It was all on our side,” Robinson said. “I think we started playing again like we know how we can play. We played MIVB volleyball.”
Rindlaub said she was most impressed with how her team finished Saturday, and was encouraged by the lengths her players went to fix their mistakes.
“They played incredibly well, especially in that last match. It was one of the best all-around matches we’ve played this season,” she said. “We had so much energy. Considering it was our third match of the day, some of our hustle plays were pretty unbelieveable.”
Mercer Island will compete in the 3A state volleyball championships Nov. 13-14 at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.
