YAKIMA, Wash. – For the primary time since 2018, the Class 3A state volleyball championship trophy won’t reside in a Spokane highschool’s trophy case.
Lakeside of Seattle took it to The Lilac Metropolis’s greatest on Friday, beating 2018 and 2019 champion Mount Spokane in a four-set semifinal earlier than sweeping defending champ Mead within the closing on the Yakima Valley SunDome.
The highest-seeded Lions additionally received the title in 2016.
The championship is redemption for Lakeside, which additionally entered the 2021 match because the No. 1 seed however fell wanting the trophy spherical.
“There was undoubtedly some unfinished enterprise,” Lions coach Jeff Kim mentioned. “The seniors needed it and so they earned it and so they performed their greatest match within the final match of the season.”
Lakeside rode stellar serving, tight protection and the surface hitting of 12th-graders Sophie Broesamle and Yazzy Muhammad to the crown.
“This yr coming collectively for the state match and having the success we did is a reward for the whole lot we needed to undergo final yr,” mentioned Muhammad, who was hardly slowed by a closely taped left knee from a late-season harm.
The 6-foot-2 standout capped her profession by pounding the ball previous the Panthers’ protection for 2 of the Lions’ closing factors.
“A whole lot of us seniors have been on the workforce since senior yr after we weren’t that good – we barely made it to state that yr,” she mentioned. “To come back in right here and dominate a workforce like Mead was so rewarding for us.”
As if taking down the match favourite wasn’t a tall sufficient job, the Panthers – seeded No. 2 – struggled to seek out rhythm.
“We’re sort of a middle-dominant workforce and if we are able to’t cross the ball proper then we’re in bother,” Mead coach Shawn Wilson mentioned. “And we have been in bother from the get-go as soon as we weren’t passing the ball like we would have liked to.”
The Lions jumped on the Panthers in every of the three units and by no means regarded again. Within the opener it was a 7-2 edge, then 12-7 within the second body and – after Mead scored the primary two factors of the ultimate set – Lakeside went up 12-4 within the clincher.
“We actually needed to deal with serving and protection – only a relentless angle, going after each ball, ensuring nothing drops and sacrificing your physique,” Kim mentioned.
Mead knocked off Bishop Blanchet, 25-19, 19-25, 26-24, 25-20 to achieve the championship match.
The Bears, nonetheless, bounced again and battled previous Mount Spokane, 17-25, 27-25, 26-25, 25-22 to take third place in a rematch of the 2016 championship.
The Wildcats’ fourth-place end was their sixth consecutive top-five trophy.
(Featured photograph by Eric Trent)
