Prep volleyball: Warriors beat Glacier Peak 3-1; play Tuesday for state berth

The Edmonds-Woodway girls volleyball team overcame a first set loss to rally back for a 3-1 victory over Glacier Peak in a first-round District 1 playoff match Saturday night. The Warriors will now face Arlington on Tuesday in a winner-to-state match-up.

The fourth set was the most evenly contested. With the visiting Grizzlies ahead 23-21, the Warriors reeled off three straight points to create match point. But the Warriors would serve long. The teams would trade points before GP won two straight and put themselves in a position to win. The Warriors responded with two straight, then GP with two. Finally, with the teams tied at 31, Missy Peterson hit a “dink” winner and Amanda Paavola hit a service winner to finish off the game and the match.

“They pulled through. They finished. I was proud of them,” said Warriors coach Nicole Bordeaux.

The first set was even at 12 before the Grizzlies went on a seven-point run to take control. “We have a tendency to come out flat. We’re working on that,” said Bordeaux. Glacier Peak would go on to take the set 25-19.

The second set started out favorably for the Warriors as they pulled away early, going up 14-6. The Grizzlies fought back, getting as close as 18-15 before Kelly Gootee would go on a run at serve winning four straight including three straight aces to increase the margin to 23-15 and eventually a 25-16 set win. Gootee had six aces on the night. “We’ve been serving really well lately, ” said Gootee. “I’ve been trying to get her to mix it up, and it’s working,” added Bordeaux.

The third set was leaning the Warriors’ way, as E-W was ahead 17-14, winning the last eight points behind Samantha Hardan’s serving. Paavola finished it off with one of her team-leading 18 kills.

“We had more aces than misses,” Bordeaux said of the team’s 20 aces on the night. “The seniors really held it together it tonight.”

In addition to Paavola’s 18 kills, Peterson added 13 and Kym Lundt 10. In addition to her six aces, Gootee was responsible for 41 assists. Paavola had 3.5 blocks and Rehnfeldt had a team-leading 18 digs.

Tuesday’s match with Arlington is a rematch of two weeks ago, a match which the Warriors won in four sets.  Bordeaux hope to have Leah Bakken on Tuesday. “She really helps on the block”

Tuesday’s game time is 7 p.m. Arlington tends to bring a lot of fans to the game, but Bordeaux isn’t concerned.” We’re working on getting our fans here, but we do OK on our own. Either way we’ll be ready.”

— By Jeff Smarr