Mercer Island volleyball takes third at KingCo

After wrapping up the regular season early last week, the Mercer Island girls volleyball team took third in the KingCo tournament at Sammamish High School.

By Megan Managan • November 2, 2010 6:17 pm
The Islanders await a serve during the team’s 3-1 KingCo tournament win over Liberty last Saturday.
The Islanders await a serve during the team’s 3-1 KingCo tournament win over Liberty last Saturday.

After wrapping up the regular season early last week, the Mercer Island girls volleyball team took third in the KingCo tournament at Sammamish High School.

After falling to the No. 2 team in the league in the second round, the Islanders bounced back for a 3-1 win over Liberty on Saturday to earn the No. 3 seed going into this weekend’s district tournament.

On Saturday, against the Patriots, a team that the Islanders had battled throughout the regular season, the girls from the Island earned a win in the first game, 25-15. Liberty, however, wasn’t ready to concede the match just yet, as they picked up a 25-20 win in game two. But Mercer Island put the match away with two more wins, 25-19 and 25-17, to win the match.

Rachel Bowdle had a huge defensive afternoon for MI, posting 22 digs in the games, while her teammates racked up with kills. Madelyn Bloom had five, Kris Brackmann had a team high of 10 kills with four aces, Sara Lindquist posted five kills and four blocks, and Lottie MacAulay had seven and three blocks. Lorial Yeadon had eight kills and 15 digs, while Ariel Dewey had 38 assists.

The team kicked off the tournament on Friday evening with a 3-0 (25-17, 265-16, 25-16) win over Bellevue.

Robby Blood posted five kills in the win over the Wolverines, while Dewey had 20 assists in the match.

With the win over Bellevue, the Islanders moved into round two against Juanita, the team ranked No. 2 during the KingCo season. The Islanders lost 3-0 (25-18, 25-14, 25-19) to the Rebels to move into the consolation bracket on Saturday.

Bowdle posted 10 digs for the Islanders and Dewey had 23 assists, but it wasn’t enough to get past the highly offensive Juanita team.

The Islanders will now face the No. 6 Metro team on Thursday, Nov. 4, at 5:30 p.m. at West Seattle High School. A win pits the team against the No. 1 team out of Metro at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday night. A loss in the first game ends the team’s season. The top four teams out of the SeaKing district tournament will move onto the state tournament, which begins Nov. 12 in Kennewick.