Volleyball 9-8-2009 vs Cascade

The Oak Harbor Wildcat volleyball team opened their season with a non-league match against the Cascade Bruins.

Due to finishing touches being put on the gym and remodeled field house, the freshman, JV and varsity squads were split between the two middle schools.

The Freshman team played at Oak Harbor Middle School and had a successful outing, winning all 3 games.

The JV was at North Whidbey Middle School and dropped all 3 games, but the games were all close, with only a 2-point differential in each of the 3 games.

The varsity was also at North Whidbey, and Cascade made the Wildcats work.

The first game started out even, with the two teams trading points to knot the score at 4-4. The ‘Cats then took the lead 7-4, aided by a Devin Tanner service ace, then Cascade closed it back to 2 points, 7-5. At that point Emily Meagher got the serve, and when Cascade was able to score again, OH was ahead 14-5. Later in the game Marisa Sutherland scored a kill to make the score 21-14 in favor of OH. Cascade closed the gap, but gave Oak Harbor game point, 24-17, on a hitting error. Cascade didn’t give up and scored 7 straight points, including 2 service aces, to tie it at 24. Katelyn Bristow got a nice set for a kill to give OH game point 25-24, but Cascade still was not going down without a fight, twice holding game point of their own. In the end, a net violation on the Bruins then a service ace gave Oak Harbor game 1, 30-28.

Game two was close throughout until OH was able to build a 3-point lead on a Sutherland kill, helped along by 2 kills and a service ace by Tanner. The Wildcats lead for all but the earliest moments of the game and finished with a 25-19 win to take a 2-0 match lead.

Again, Cascade fought back. They took command midway through game 3, winning 25-15. Amanda Blau had a couple of kills for the ‘Cats.

Game 4 was much like game 2, with the two teams never more than 3 points apart. Kelsey Terrazas-Cooley scored one of her 6 aces in this game but it wasn’t enough as Oak Harbor lost game four 23-25 to tie the match at two games apiece.

The final, fifth game is played to only 15 points. The Wildcats fell behind early, giving Cascade an early 4-1 lead, but OH fought back and a nice block by Amanda Blau gave the girls a 5-4 lead. Cascade grabbed the lead back, 8-7, but two straight hitting errors by the Bruins gave the lead back to OH and they kept it. Devin Tanner sealed the win by Oak Harbor with a big kill to make it 15-10 in game 5 and a 3-2 win for Oak Harbor.

Sutherland led the team with 11 kills, and 5’-5” Bristow added 6. Setter Melany Cone tallied 35 assists.

4 video clips are posted HERE, including Devin Tanner's match point kill.

Almost 90 photos of the JV and varsity matches are posted HERE.