In a battle of long-time South Sound volleyball powers, The Puyallup Vikings (6-0, 3-0 in 4A SPSL) host the 2021 4A State runner-up the Curtis Vikings (5-0, 2-0 in 4A SPSL) as the two contenders collide in their first meeting against each other this season at Puyallup High School.
Volleyball fans will get to see two of the premier teams in the state as Curtis is lead by last year’s 1st Team 4A SPSL’s Co-MVPs, in Ella Ensign for Curtis and Danielle Brown for Puyallup.
The fact that both of these star athletes return for their respective programs make them both contenders to not only to win the SPSL but make deep runs in the post-season and possibly a State title.
As mentioned earlier, both teams are off to dominant starts; Ensign is off to a fast start for Curtis with 23 kills in a 3-1 victory against Olympia and added 15 kills in 3-0 shutout over Rogers. Her 104 kills lead the entire state according to the site MaxPreps.com. Her sister Peyton is 2nd in the state in assists (over 1,000 last year as freshman) and Arianna Medchill is ranked 8th in the state in kills for Curtis as a Sophomore.
For Puyallup, Brown is coming off season where she had the 2nd most blocks in school history on her way to earning WA Coaches Association 4A First Team All-State among a plethora of other awards.
South Dakota School of Mines & Technology commit Ivy Vindivich provides a scoring punch on the outside for PHS, she had 11 kills in a win over Kennedy Catholic and added another 5 in a victory over Richfield. You combine that with the returning starting sister duo of Sophia and Reese Shepard and Puyallup is a threat in 4A.
As for the Head Coaches in the match-up, Puyallup is lead by former PHS and Eastern Washington standout Allie Schumacher, who is in her 2nd season as HC after replacing her high school coach and longtime Puyallup Coach Tony Batinovich. In her first season at the helm, she guided Puyallup to a 24-8 overall record, just falling short of State in the District round.
Curtis is coached by 4th year head coach Taylor Bautista, who guided the Vikings to the state title game last year against Bothel with a young team, and after going 28-6-1 a year ago feels this team can have another deep run with all of the returning pieces they have this season.
Tuesday’s first serve is slated at Puyallup High School at 7:15, with pre-match coverage starting at 7:00.
You can watch the entire match on the NFHS Network live or on-demand. Subscriptions are $11.99 per month and gives you access to the entire NFHS Network all across the country to watch the live broadcasts or any on-demand games. Literally hundreds of thousands of hours of game content. Go to https://www.nfhsnetwork.com/affiliates/eli-sports-network to sign-up if you don’t have a subscription or to find the on-demand replay of this game.
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