Something had to break in Thursday night’s KingCo volleyball championship at Bothell High School.
Bothell had won eight straight matches — only dropping three games in that span. Issaquah had won four straight matches — only losing two games over its streak.
An inspired Issaquah squad came out the aggressor against the Kingco 4A regular season champions, but the Eagles’ fast start quickly faded as they fell in four games, 25-27, 25-21, 25-9, 25-17.
“I think they know that in game one and game two we came out and played with ultimate confidence and we just believed in ourselves,” IHS head coach Todd Parsons said. “Game three, that got a little shaky.
Hopefully we learned a lesson that if we go out and play confident we can do whatever we want. These girls know that we have enough to play against anybody in the state.”
The Eagles flew out of the gate in game one. After trailing the Cougars 6-0, they battled back to take a four point advantage, 20-16. Issaquah worked its way to match-point 24-21, but Bothell fought back to tie and eventually take the game, 27-25.
The same scenario played out in game two, but Issaquah sealed the deal this time around. With a 24-21 lead, senior Kayla Schwisow served up an ace for the win.
“They got a little nervous when they had those match points there,” Parsons said. “The good thing is that when we had the exact same opportunity in game two they stepped it up, and those exact same players finished that game off.”
The wheels came off in the final two games, however. Issaquah committed error after error and Bothell’s Charnele Odingo, the league MVP, knocked down 10 of her match-high 21 kills.
Issaquah committed 16 errors on serves — something Parsons said was extremely rare for his team.
“It was just kind of the story of the night,” he said. “You just can’t any good team that many free points off of missed serves.”
Junior Alyssa Schultz led the Eagles with nine kills and sophomore Rachel Roeder had eight.
Both teams advanced to the state tournament, which begins Nov. 21 in Kennewick. Bothell earned a No. 1 seed and Issaquah a No. 3 seed.
“If we go out there, we play our best and we play confident, I like our chances against anybody,” Parsons said.
First-team all KingCo
Rachel Roeder (OH), Issaquah; Maddie Magee (OH), Skyline; Zoe Iida (DS), Bothell; Charnele Odingo (M), Bothell; Nikki Conley (S/OH), Woodinville; Sarah O’Connor (OH), Roosevelt; Lisa Day (OH), Ballard.
Second team (Local athletes only): Alyssa Schultz (OH), Issaquah; Stephanie Jones (OH), Issaquah; Alyssa Charlston (MB), Eastlake; Alex Petroff (L), Skyline. Honorable mention (Local athletes only): Kayla Schwisow (L), Issaquah; Riley Sorenson (S), Issaquah; Lauren Magnus (OH), Eastlake; Ellie Martinez (MB), Eastlake; Lindsey Kim (M), Skyline; Sam Sanghvi (S), Skyline.
