By Quint Turner

The Maverick volleyball team continued to dominate as they have all year with a win over the Lynnwood Royals in straight sets. It was Dig for the Cure Night in The Stable as money was raised to help support finding cures for all cancers and turn all patients into survivors. Outside hitter Lindsey Milner for the Mavs did most of the offensive damage while Sloane Morrison and Hailey Hullin swatted down unsuspecting spikes from Lynnwood for the win.

The first set was dominated by Meadowdale. At 2-2 early on, Emily Denham spiked deep into the Royals court, just in front of the line, to make it 3-2. From there, the Mavericks rode a 10-point streak, capped off by a spike from Amy Rickel, making it 13-3. The point streak was snapped by Lynnwood’s Arianna Garcia on a tap over the net that fell between Meadowdale players. But the Mavericks took six points in a row to 18-4.

Lynnwood made it interesting with a six-point streak due to some miscues by the Mavericks and a wonderful drop shot by Dominique Collins, making it 20-10. The Mavericks stopped that streak and eventually won the set 25-17 on a serve by Rickel when a Royals’ dig went awry.

Both sides got three points in a row to start the second set that was back and forth throughout. Milner started getting hot with two spikes to put the Mavericks up 12-5; one of the spikes was a smash to the weak side of the Royals and the other was a deep shot that just stayed in. More back and forth play put the Mavericks up 16-7, but a great shot from Lynnwood fell just in front of a diving Rickel to get to 16-8. Meadowdale came back as Milner smacked an untouched smash into the corner to make it 19-11. With the Mavs up 23-16, Lynnwood had a great heads-up play by Linda Wilson, who jumped up to tap a set from the Mavericks between the players. However, Meadowdale would win the set 25-19 when Julianne Kossian hit a drop shot that fell in the middle of the Lynnwood formation.

Lynnwood came out swinging in the third set. A swat from Kaitlen Evers got them the 1-0 lead, and they jumped out to 3-0. Morrison swatted down a spike to make it 5-4 Lynnwood, but then Garcia hit a spike on the back corner to make it 7-5 in response. Rickel came back to tie the game at 8 on an ace, but Lynnwood took back the lead on a wonderful spike off a deflection by Samantha Carsares, making it 10-9.

Lynnwood got an 18-15 lead after Evers hit a spike in between three Mavericks, but the Mavericks got a four-point surge thanks to a wonderful bump that Denham set herself up to smash a spike to tie the game. The Mavericks took a 22-19 lead after another great spike from Kossian to the open corner, and Meadowdale went on to win on a Kate Stevens ace for a 25-22 set win.

The Mavericks improve to 12-1 (10-1 in conference) and have their final match of the season next Wednesday for Senior Night against Mountlake Terrace at home.