Good Wednesday morning. We will have our baseball and softball wrap up coming up shortly. First, though, we have our weekly look at local girls’ club volleyball here in the Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal, as we follow the 2023 winter and spring season in USA Volleyball’s Puget Sound Region and profile the teams and Valley athletes that are part of them.
This past weekend was a pretty important one for a number of top high-school age teams in the region, as they all traveled to Spokane to compete in the Pacific Northwest Qualifier tournament, the only major event during the season in the Northwest where teams have a chance to qualify for the USA Volleyball Junior Olympic Nationals each summer. And for a couple of local teams, there was success seen.
Leading that group was the Kent-based North Pacific Juniors’ 18U National team. NPJ, featuring Mount Si High School seniors Friley Curtiss and Lauren Kremer, dominated in pool play, going 6-0 on the weekend, and they made it into the title round Monday in the 18U American division and had a chance to earn a national berth. Unfortunately, that quest ended quickly as they were bounced in their opening playoff match by a team from Oregon. Still, though, it was a strong weekend for the group, who has been one of the top teams in the region all season, and will look to finish that out at their 18U national tournament here in a few weeks time. NPJ’s 18U Elite, with Wildcat Ana Holverstott, was also there, but struggled, going winless in all seven of their matches and finished 31st in their division.
Meanwhile, what was a lousy opening day for Bellevue’s Sudden Impact Tornado cost them a chance at a national berth, but the 16U group bounced back in a big way, winning six straight contests Sunday and Monday and their flight playoff on Monday to finish 7-2 overall on the weekend. A pair of players with Mount Si ties factored into the final flourish too – Wildcat Maggie Kamp and Tahoma’s Isabelle Foote, daughter of retired longtime Mount Si coach Bonnie Foote. They finished 25th overall in the 16U Liberty division, but that placing really did not do this effort justice. Hopefully, the group will be able to build off this and continue their push for success this season.
Teams competing in the event faced teams from all over the western United States, and from places as far away as Texas and Colorado.
Other teams, as noted here:
-16U: NPJ Nationals, with MSHS’s Carissa Zwiefelhofer, took ninth in the 16U Open with a 3-4 weekend record.
-16U: Sudden Impact Thunder, with Wildcat Sophie Lobet, finished 23rd in that division only winning once in seven tries
-16U: Northwest Juniors’ 16UA Blue, with MSHS’s Izzy Milsten, finished 35th in the 16U Liberty going .500 on the weekend at 4-4
-17U: Northwest’s 17UA Blue, with Wildcats Audrey Gibbs and Taylor Christmas, also went .500 at 4-4 and they finished 29th in the 17U Liberty
-18U: Northwest’s 18U, with a foursome of MSHS players including Brooke Daly, Ashley Nugent, Meredith Mozseter and Peyton MacKenzie, finished 11th in the 18U American with a 3-4 record. Northwest is based in Bellevue.
In other action:
Power League: 14U and 15U teams tuned up for Spokane play this weekend at the PNQ’s second weekend with local play this past weekend.
Carnation-based Valley View Volleyball did not have a bad weekend at all. Let’s start with their 13U Silver and 14U Sapphire squads. The two went a combined 7-1 on the weekend with the only loss being as the result of a head-to-head battle between the two teams which closed out play for the two teams this past weekend, a battle won by Silver in three sets and ended a seven-match win streak for Sapphire which started after a loss earlier in the season to their younger-age counterparts. The 14U team has won nine of their last 11 matches, with the only two losses coming in that stretch to the Silver. The teams are back-to-back in the standings, in 73rd (13’s Silver) and 74th (14’s Sapphire), so it is hoped their continued good play can see them rise up the ladder.
Also, Valley View’s 14U Silver and 15U Sapphire teams saw losses in weekend play that ended long win streaks – Sapphire fell to a team from Puyallup while Silver dropped a match to Mercer Island’s Island Thunder. Good stuff here to see the girls doing well and racking up wins, so these bumps in the road hopefully will not be affecting the girls’ confidence too much. VV’s teams all have some form of lower Valley participation in them, with students from the Riverview School District.
Rounding it out, Sudden Impact’s Lightning, who will be at the Spokane event this weekend, sits fifth overall in the 15U rankings after a 2-2 weekend. Former longtime Mount Si assistant Dave Bachman coaches that squad.
WVBA March Madness: With the Washington Volleyball Academy not participating in the Spokane activities, the Lynnwood-based club hosted its own tournament this past weekend, and WVBA’s 16U Regional, with Cedarcrest’s Cait Hawkins, went 4-1 and finished sixth against a field of largely older-age teams; they played in the tournament’s 18U division.
This weekend
Spokane weekend two is on deck for the 14’s and 15’s, with Lightning expected to be the lone participant of those teams we are covering being there at this event. With their current strong ranking in the region, they should be considered a contender for a national berth this weekend, so we wish those ladies and coach Bachman good luck over there. They will be playing at the Podium complex just north of Spokane Arena in the city’s downtown core; teams in last weekend’s set of games played there and at three other sites – the downtown convention center, Eastern Washington University and the HUB Sports facility in Liberty Lake, about a 15-minute drive east of downtown Spokane on I-90.
There may be other items as well and we will mention those separately for you here later. A full wrapup on all of this weekend’s action comes up next week for you here in this segment, so for now, this has been your weekly look at local girls’ club volleyball in USA Volleyball’s Puget Sound Region in the SVSJ.
Snoqualmie Valley Sports Journal 