I’m going to take a few minutes and look into the crystal ball for the upcoming volleyball playoffs as area West Sound teams vie for positioning.
Let’s start with the Class 4A Narrows League and Central Kitsap and South Kitsap.
The Cougars of CK are 7-2 sit in third place. The Narrows League tournament, Oct. 30-Nov. 1 at Mount Tahoma, will send six berths to the West Central District tournament. If CK stays in third, they will face the No. 6 seed — which coincidentally enough could be South Kitsap (4-4). The Cougars do play Gig Harbor (9-0) Monday.
The big showdown in the Narrows is today’s match between Gig Harbor and Olympia (8-0). The winner of that game will be the No. 1 seed. I spoke to CK coach Gordy Bushaw when he called in his results, and he said the better of the two teams is Olympia. Bushaw keeps stats on serve receive based on a 3-point calculation and Oly was passing at a 2.6 clip against CK.
Another note on CK, the Cougars welcomed back sophomore standout Tricia Vantino, who suffered a mild concussion last week against Wilson. Vantino sat out the Olympia match, but returned to play against Mount Tahoma Wednesday and had 21 assists. Also, senior defensive specialist Dakota Cavanaugh tied a school record with 11 aces against MT. Katie Wilkinson held the record, set in the 2006 state tournament.
In the 3A division of the Olympic League, North Kitsap has wrapped up the No. 1 seed and will more than likely face Capital from the Western Cascade Conference in the sub-district tourney to determine the overall No. 1 berth to the WCD tourney, being held at Auburn Mountainview HS, Nov. 6-8. Olympic HS secured the No. 2 spot and will host the WCC No. 3 team — either North Thurston or Timberline. That game is scheduled for Nov. 3, but could change because the girls soccer team is playing that day as well.
The 2A OL schools head straight to the WCD (time/date TBA). If it’s anything like last year, No. 1 seed Sequim will play the winner of the OL No. 3/Nisqually League No. 2. Last year’s OL champs North Mason is holding onto the No. 2 seed and could play a loser-out game in the first round. More info on that to come later.
As for Crosspoint Academy (2B), Port Townsend (1A) and Chimacum (1A) those remain a little muddy at the moment and I will come back with an update at a later date.
I just can’t understand the lack of respect the NK Volleyball team gets from the Kitsap Sun blog. They crushed Olympic in their first match and beat them soundly in their second. Handily beat Central Kitsap, and walloped one Varsity team 25-0(!!). Yet not much coverage here other than a passing mention that they are ranked 5th in state (!) and heading to sub-districts.
In this latest Prep Blog, mention is made of three (!) CK players, with nothing about anyone from NK? How about Sophomore Sarah Baugh leading the league in kills despite setting half the time, and near the top in assists despite hitting half the time- would she be a sensation if she played at CK? How about Taylor Ottomono ranking second in the league in hitting and has been near the top for her team in hitting for three years- would she notable if she played for Olympic! Let’s not forget Brianna Bohl serving 24 serves in a row (!) in a single game to help beat a Varsity HS team 25-0 (!!)- would that be amazing if she played for CK or Oly?
How about the great coaching job Tim French is doing, including having enough confidence in his players to start 3 sophomores and 1 Junior. Let’s also not forget the fact that this team has won 39 out of 41 games (95%) during their 13-0 run! Have you called him to get his thoughts on the sub-district game?
Come on, you can do better than this.
Um, not sure what you mean by not mentioning NK volleyball on the blog. They are ranked No. 1 in the West Sound Power Poll as well. I also had NK as the pre-season favorite for our preview at the start of the season. Yes, we chose to feature a story on Bremerton and its new coach at the beginning of the year, but that’s because NK would have a great season and receive plenty of stories.
The Vikings have been highlighted numerous times on the blog, take a look:
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/kitsap-preps/2009/10/19/nk-remains-no-5-in-coaches-poll/
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/kitsap-preps/2009/10/19/volleyball-power-poll-2/
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/kitsap-preps/2009/10/15/more-on-nk-oly-volleyball/
http://pugetsoundblogs.com/kitsap-preps/2009/10/08/more-thoughts-on-nk-volleyball/
I also wrote a story about Taylor Ottomano, which you can find on the web site as well. I can see NK going deep into the playoffs, which means they will get covered more — that’s status quo for covering high school teams. And coach Tim French has been very dedicated in his stats, so they are posted with the leaders in print edition as well as on the blog.
Annette Griffus
Kitsap Sun
booooo hooooo!