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.
