Aberdeen avoided all the distractions to earn a straight-set victory over W.F. West on Tuesday at Sam Benn Gym in Aberdeen.
Playing in front of a Senior Night crowd in the midst of its best season in decades, the Bobcats (9-3 overall, 6-1 1A Evergreen) took care of business with a 25-16, 25-17 and 25-21 victory over the last-place Bearcats (3-11, 1-6).
“I think we just really needed to focus on this game tonight,” Aberdeen standout sophomore libero Sophie Knutson said. “We have to win game by game and I think that mattered the most.”
After seeing a 10-point lead get a little too close for comfort, Aberdeen kept its Senior Night emotions in check to win Game 1 thanks in large part to a four-point service streak by senior middle blocker Lilly Camp to secure the set victory.
In Game 2, Knutson’s jump serve helped Aberdeen out to a 5-0 start as the Cats cruised to a 25-17 win, with Camp hammering home a kill to close out the set.
RYAN SPARKS | THE DAILY WORLD Aberdeen senior Lilly Camp (12) puts up a shot against W.F. West during a 3-0 victory on Tuesday at Aberdeen High School.
Tied at 6-6 in Game 3, Aberdeen took the lead for good with a nine-point streak by simply limiting mistakes and sophmore setter Mia Hallak getting the ball to hitters Camp and fellow senior co-captain Ashlyn Richie.
After Bobcats serve-reception errors helped W.F. West get back in the game at 19-18, Aberdeen head coach Desiree Glanz called a timeout to refocus her players.
“She said to focus on our energy,” Hallak said of the timeout.
“Energy is a really big thing for us,” Knutson concurred. “When we get down, we lose points really bad. We really need to focus on energy and that’s pretty much what we always say in timeouts.”
“Energy and setting the pace,” Glanz said of her timeout discussion with her players. “We had the lead, but we were a little bit of a rollercoaster tonight. … But the energy was important because when we are up, we play up.”
The pep-talk worked as Aberdeen won four of the next five points to get to match point and secured the victory when Hallak fed a set over to senior Zoe Vessey, who hit a well-placed drop shot down the line to close out a long rally for the win.
“We’re just focusing on keeping the energy up and on what we needed to focus on,” said Hallak, who had a game-high 25 assists for Aberdeen. “We pushed really hard and we got what we came to get.”
“I’m really happy and I’m really happy for our seniors to0,” Knutson said.
Aberdeen honored seniors Vessey, Camp, Richie, Kirsi Scott, Liberty Schimelpfenig and Alyviah Lamont on Senior Night.
The Bobcats sit in second place, one game behind Tumwater for the top spot in the league.
Aberdeen plays at Shelton at 7 p.m. on Thursday before closing out the league season with two home games next week, including a Halloween night matchup against Tumwater.
W.F. West 16 17 21 – 0
Aberdeen 25 25 25 – 3
Leading players: Aberdeen – Vessey (13-13 service, 11 digs, 6 kills); Scott (4-4 service, 2 aces, 3 digs); Hallak (3-8 service, 25 assists, 4 digs, 2 kills); Richie (1-3 service, 5 kills); Schimelpfenig (17-18 service, 5 aces); Camp (9-12 service, 2 aces, 3 blocks); Knutson (10-10 service); Williams (block, 4 kills); McCombs (3 kills, dig).
