HS Volleyball: North Thurston Earns 2nd Sweep in a Row Over Peninsula

9/12/24

North Thurston 3, Peninsula 0 (25-16, 25-11, 25-19)

(Lacey, WA) While the Puget Sound League is a new league as a whole, the Peninsula Seahawks and North Thurston Rams entered Thursday night’s volleyball match very familiar with one another as the two former South Sound Conference members met in a 3A showdown. With Peninsula coming off a loss in their season opener and North Thurston coming off a rebound win for their first win of the season, both teams had plenty of motivation to make an early season statement.

North Thurston got off to a hot start as they rattled off five consecutive points with Katelyn Cleland serving four in a row. Peninsula would chip away at the deficit with Emma Young and Julia Epstein getting off to strong starts to cut their deficit down to three. Addy Conner then began to catch fire for the Rams with her combination of power and touch at the net. After Abby Losey served four straight points to open the lead back up for the Rams, they were able to cruise to the end of the opening set with a 25-16 win.

In set number two, North Thurston ran away early. Abby Losey served eight points in a row early to help North Thurston take a commanding 11-3 lead. A couple of aces for Addy Conner extended that lead to 17-4 and Peninsula just didn’t have the time to catch up. The back line for the Seahawks in Abbi Justice, Kate Cardinal, and Vivien Sweet did start to get in a groove in the second set. However, the consistent attack from Conner as well as Samantha Humphrey and Abby Sheeran just never allowed Peninsula to gain momentum. North Thurston ran away with their early big lead to win the second set 25-11.

Saving the best for last, the Rams and Seahawks played a very close and competitive third set. Neither side could gain much separation as Ziah Sneva took over for Peninsula at the net with Julia Epstein assisting along the way. Peninsula took their first lead of the match and kept the lead with three consecutive points and an ace by Kate Cardinal. Abby Losey really took off after that and Humphrey continued her strong play. It would be Kaelani Adams that sparked North Thurston’s rally in the 3rd. She saved her best play of the match for late in the third set when she added another weapon at the net to erase the Rams deficit. One last block by North Thurston put a wrap on a second consecutive sweep as North Thurston took the final set from Peninsula, 25-19.

Our Cole Health MVP of the match went to Addy Conner. Up at the net, Conner was fantastic not only blocking Peninsula kill attempts, but she was also mixing it up offensively. Conner could use power or finesse with her kills and had pinpoint precision with ball placement. She would also add in a couple of aces to separate herself from the pack and take home the MVP award.

North Thurston moves to 2-1 and 2-0 in league play with back-to-back sweeps. After playing in a tournament at Auburn Mountainview this weekend, the Rams will get back into Puget Sound League play on Tuesday when they host River Ridge. Peninsula drops to 0-2 with both matches coming in league play and the Seahawks will look for their first win on Tuesday at home against Lakes. Both matches will start at 7:15pm.