Every point seemed to matter during Monday night’s 1A Emerald City League (ECL) volleyball match as the Overlake Owls and Seattle Academy Cardinals battled in the Overlake School gym.
With the Owls already securing a berth to the ECL playoffs starting tonight, the home team could have played the role of spoiler and knocked the Cardinals out of the playoff picture with a win, but Seattle Academy stayed alive with a 3-1 victory on game scores of 25-22, 25-15, 25-27 and 25-21.
“It was a big game for them, and a great win for them – they played well,” said Overlake head coach Scott Christopher on the Cardinals’ performance. “We welcome Forest Ridge or (Seattle Academy), it will be a great matchup regardless.”
Forest Ridge and Seattle Academy played Tuesday night for the No. 3 seed to the playoffs, with the Ravens winning 3-0 to earn the right to face Overlake tonight.
A DEAD HEAT
With the two teams battling it out point-for-point in the first game, the squads were very evenly matched with Overlake seniors Kirsten Parris and Emilee Chambard doing most of the hitting for the Owls from the outside.
Despite the team combining for seven service aces in the opening set, including back-to-back aces by the team’s third senior Louise Chouinard, Cardinal freshman Sierra Lorenzini served up three straight aces to win 25-22.
After battling back to win 25-15 in the second set, and enjoying an emotional Senior Night ceremony that celebrated the team’s three upperclassmen, the Owls dug out of an early hole to tie the third set score at 12-12. The score was later knotted at 16-16, and a crucial kill by Chambard that landed on the line to make it 23-23 got the raucous Owls crowd on their feet.
Going into extra points, the stellar Seattle Academy serving was simply too much for the Owls as they lost game three to another well-placed ace, 27-25.
“What we learned tonight is that if we don’t do what we’re capable of, there’s consequences for that,” Christopher admitted, adding he was proud of the team’s overall effort. “They battled the whole game.”
With their backs to the wall in the must-win fourth set, the Owls were down by seven, 16-23, and Christopher called a critical time out, pulling his three seniors aside for a pep talk.
“I talked to them about leadership, and we came out of that time out and started doing the things we need to do to be successful,” he recalled, with the Owls reeling off five straight points to narrow the cap to 21-23 before finally losing the momentum. “We’ll figure out a way to play well enough, long enough, and we’ll put it together.”
PRIMED FOR THE PLAYOFFS
Led by the senior trio and a talented supporting cast including junior setter Vanessa Rosato, 6-foot-2 sophomore Clara Voss and freshman libero Carly Silvernale, the Owls definitely have the tools to make a postseason run this year in a tough league and what will be an even tougher Tri-District tournament.
Should the Owls advance out of the ECL tournament with an opening-round win tonight, they will have to battle against the best teams from the Cascade, Northwest, Olympic and Nisqually leagues for one of six coveted state berths, something that Christopher believes is in store for his squad.
“I like where this team is, and we’re just getting better every day,” he said. “We’re going to grow from this and become a better team come playoff time.”
The Owls will play the winner of Forest Ridge/Seattle Academy on Thursday night at home, with the winner going on to face undefeated Annie Wright (8-0, 11-1) in the tournament semifinals on Saturday.
Photos courtesy of Alicia Gold, Overlake School Athletic Department Assistant
