It’s been an interesting Olympic League volleyball season and it became a whole lot more interesting Thursday.
(Tony Johnson)
Bremerton beat North Kitsap, 3-2, for the first time in what Knights coach Clay Blackwood thinks could be 20 years. He said when he coached at North Kitsap his teams never lost to Bremerton.
“For me there’s such a connection with North,” said Blackwood, who is also a NK grad.
He just hopes his players don’t get stuck in the past and know there’s a lot more ahead of them this season.
“I think the girls are hopefully just going to ride that high,” he said. “We have to focus on Sequim, but their confidence is much greater now.”
Blackwood also knows North, which already clinched its seventh league title in the last eight years, was at a slight disadvantage as they were without outside hitter Bri Duchemin and Hannah Waterman, who has been injured, played sparingly. Still, he felt good that is team was able to take advantage of the opportunity of beating NK.
“It was a good match,” he said. “It really was.”
With the loss, the Vikings saw their league-winning streak come to an end. Their last loss came against Sequim in 2012.
The Knights are currently in second place at 7-4, right behind North Kitsap (9-1), but ahead of Olympic and Kingston, both tied for third place with 6-4 records. And for the first time, the Buccaneers from Kingston will head to the playoffs. I’ll have more on that story coming up at a later date.
Let’s take a quick look at Klahowya in the 1A since we’re here. I had hoped to chat with Eagles coach Kim Renken, but she was on a business trip in Japan. That means she won’t be at Klahowya’s match against Coupeville on Monday.
What’s on the line for the Eagles is this. Klahowya is 4-0 with two matches left, Monday against the Wolves and then Tuesday against Chimacum. Both Coupeville and Chimacum are tied at 2-2. A win on Monday would give Klahowya the No. 1 seed into the district tournament. That is huge as the top seed skips the loser-out portion of the tournament and heads directly into the double elimination portion.
The fact the Eagles are in this position at all is a testament to the players, who were without a coach until what seemed like the start of the season. Renken was hired just as the season was going to start and she’s been able to keep the team going in the right direction — namely where the Eagles left off last year, winning the 1A league and going to district for the first time.
Things are certainly heating up with just a few games left. I’ll be back next week to keep you abreast of what’s happening as teams clinch playoff spots.
