Prep roundup: ‘Fired up’ White River volleyball stays unbeaten, continues win streak over rival Fife | The News Tribune

VOLLEYBALL

Top Performer: Jadyn Mullen, Emerald Ridge

45 assists, 10 digs in 3-1 win over Graham-Kapowsin

No. 3 White River 3, Fife 1: The Hornets still haven’t lost.

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The Trojans have two defeats this year — both against third-ranked White River.

The Hornets cruised in this matchup of 2A SPSL Mountain rivals, winning 25-13, 23-25, 25-17, 25-22 to take a two-match lead on Fife in the division standings with three matches left to play.

How focused was White River on defending its division title? It led 11-0 to start the first set.

“We came out fired up tonight,” White River coach Lina Randall said. “The gym was packed. Our fans are always amazing. There were tons of alumni, tons of family — it was a really cool atmosphere to play in.”

Leading the way for the Hornets was senior Keegan Strobeck who finished with 12 digs and 16 kills.

“We love being tested and we love playing against Fife,” Randall said. “It was the best we’ve seen the girls play this season.”

And now White River (12-0; 11-0 2A SPSL Mountain) just needs a win over Foss on Thursday to clinch the division title. The Hornets have more than reloaded from last year, when they advanced to the 2A state semifinals.

“You know as long as we don’t drop any other matches, which we don’t plan to do, it would be another division title for us,” Randall said.

Megan Vandegrift, a UW softball commit, had 29 digs for White River, Morgan Bundinich had 10 kills and Hope Baldyga added 37 assists. White River has now won nine consecutive matches against Fife (11-2; 9-2) with its last loss to its fellow 2A South Sound state contender coming in 2014.

Steilacoom 3, Orting 2: Maybe there was no upset in the 2A SPSL Mountain, but there was in the 2A SPSL Sound.

The Sentinels handed the Cardinals their first loss of the season, winning the first two sets, losing the next two and holding on in the deciding fifth set to win, 25-9, 25-20, 15-25, 22-25, 15-13.

Steilacoom (8-5; 8-4 2A SPSL Sound) dug everything. Saisha Morales finished 39 digs and four aces and Rachel Brown added 20 digs. CJ Dela Cruz added 32 assists and 10 more digs while Caty Neeser and Keyonna Sims had 10 kills each.

Orting (11-1) still sits atop the division standings despite the loss, leading River Ridge by a game. Holly Thomas led the Cardinals with 17 kills and four blocks and Sarah Fohn had 25 assists and three aces.

Emerald Ridge 3, Graham-Kapowsin 1: The Jaguars followed their big win over previously undefeated Curtis with another win over a top 4A SPSL team, taking down the Eagles after a war of a first set, 28-30, 25-16, 25-19, 25-19.

Jadyn Mullen was finding all of her hitters. The Corbin University commit had 45 assists and 10 digs for Emerald Ridge (11-2; 6-1 4A SPSL).

Emerald Ridge’s Tayler Templeman finished with a team-high 18 kills and nine digs, Kava Durr had 17 kills and 15 digs and Ella Litterell had 13 kills and 12 digs.

Peyton Foster again led Graham-Kapowsin (8-5; 5-2), finishing with 23 kills and 21 digs, Raedyn Goudreau had 32 assists and Madison Brockway had 29 digs.

No. 7 Puyallup 3, Olympia 0: The Vikings handled the Bears, 25-20, 25-14, 25-16 to keep pace atop the 4A SPSL standings, in hopes of their second consecutive league title.

Puyallup (11-2; 6-1 4A SPSL) is tied atop the league with Curtis (11-1, 6-1) and Emerald Ridge. Puyallup beat Emerald Ridge on Sept. 28 (3-1), but lost to Curtis on Oct. 2 (3-1) and Emerald Ridge beat Curtis on Monday (3-1).

The league’s regular-season title will come down to Puyallup’s match against South Kitsap on Tuesday, Curtis’ match against Graham-Kapowsin on Tuesday and Emerald Ridge’s match against Bellarmine on Tuesday. That will decide the top seed to the 4A SPSL tournament, which runs from Oct. 26-28.

No. 7 Capital 3, Peninsula 0: The Cougars were dominant in their win over the Seahawks behind all around strong team serving, 25-14, 25-9, 25-12.

“We were definitely serving tough. We had several aces,” Capital coach Katie Turcotte said. “The girls were just serving tough tonight. It kept them out of system.”

Leading the way on that serving was Madison Nichols who was perfect going 14-fir-14 with an ace. She also had seven kills and four digs. Elise Meath had 15 digs while going 11-for-11 serving, Maiah Nichols had 13 kills and Tia Grow had 26 assists.

“We actually had some pretty nice plays at the net too,” Turcotte said. “Our defenders were playing some pretty good defense tonight.”