Edmonds-Woodway used a balanced attack to sweep crosstown rival Meadowdale 3-0 in Wesco 3A girls volleyball Wednesday night. Junior Amanda Paavola had 14 kills, 3 of them aces, along with 8 digs to lead the Warrior attack. She was also on serve during several of the long runs E-W had to pull away in two of the sets.

“Amanda has been working hard,” said Warrior coach Nicole Bordeaux. “Tonight it paid off and I think she had a great all-around game.”

The second point of the night would end up being the longest one as the teams traded blows nine times before the Warriors’ Leah Bakken finished it off with one of her 5 kills on the night. Meadowdale would stay close, trailing only 10-8 half-way through the set and also coming back from a 15-10 deficit to make 15-14, causing Bordeaux to call a timeout to talk with her team. The break seemed to help as the Warriors would go on a couple of runs behind the serving of first Samantha Hardan and then Paavola to finish the first set strongly, ultimately outscoring the Mavs 25-18.

The second set began on a promising note for the Mavericks as they took an early 4-3 lead. E-W would answer by scoring 7 of the next 10 to go ahead 10-6 with the E-W streak stopped on a strong block of the Kym Lundt by the Mavs’ Elly Cashdollar. “I was happy with how we hung with their bigs,” said Maverick coach Machen Shrum of the size advantage the Warriors held.  E-W would score the next four point before a long serve gave the serve back to the Mavericks, who now found themselves trailing 14-8. The Mavs would get as close as 22-19 before the Warriors would close it out 25-20, with the final point coming on a spike from Lundt that just stayed fair.

Meadowdale would again start strong, taking a 12-10 lead mid-way through the third set. Maddie Judd then took over on the front line, scoring kills on 3 of the next 5 points as E-W bounced back to take an 18-16 lead. Meadowdale would score 2 of the next 3 to close the gap to one at 19-18, but the Warriors would finish strong with a Missy Peterson spike deflecting off a Maverick defender being the final blow as the Warriors completed the 3 game sweep 25-19.

The Warriors — 2-0 league, 3-1 overall — defensively were led by libero Hannah Rehnfeldt with 19 digs. Kelly Gootee had 37 assists, accounting for nearly half the Warrior points. She added 3 aces as well. Judd had 9 kills and Peterson added 8;Leah Bakken had 5 kills while playing only two periods.

Mariel Gonzales had 9 assists and 6 digs for the Mavs, while Emily Gonzales would score 6 kills. Defensively, Kaitlyn Webster had 10 digs for Meadowdale.   “We’re a young, inexperienced team,” said Shrum. “Of course I’d like to win, but I saw some good things.”

“Meadowdale always plays us tough,” said Bordeaux.   “It was great to have such a big crowd. Much better than I expected. The kids really feed off it.”

— By Jeff Smarr