\n
The Conks lost 3-2 (25-23, 18-25, 25-14, 25-6, 13-15) to the Bears after beating Kamiak 3-1 in the first round, sweeping South Puget Sound League North division rival Kent-Meridian in the second game, the beat Curtis of the SPSL South in the semi-final.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nA week ago Kentwood lost to Olympia in the West Central District semi-final, so, the Conks knew what they were up against.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nKentwood coach Cindy Seims said via email it was tough for the team to have to settle for second place.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201c<\/span>The girls were disappointed to be so close and not get that coveted state title,\u201d Seims wrote. \u00a0\u201cWe were up in game five and just couldn\u2019t get it done.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nThough it was Kentwood\u2019s eighth straight appearance and seventh trophy in that run, it was the school\u2019s best finish since winning the state crown in 1986.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n\u201cWe had an amazing season,\u201d Seims wrote. \u201cOur key all along was to have fun. \u00a0Our girls play great when they are relaxed and savoring the moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nSenior setter Kacie Seims — who was voted the SPSL North MVP — and senior outside hitter Mikaela Ballou made the all tournament team. Ballou tallied 27 kills in the title match while Kacie Seims had 40 assists.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nMeanwhile the other SPSL North teams in the tournament, Tahoma and Kent-Meridian, both missed out on a shot at a trophy.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nTahoma was eliminated in two games, finishing the season 11-10 overall and 6-2 in conference, losing 3-2 to perennial volleyball powerhouse Mead which has placed every year but this one since 1998. Newport then bounced Tahoma in the second round.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\nKent-Meridian provided the stunner of the first day of the tournament when it beat KingCo champion Woodinville 3-2 in the first round but it couldn\u2019t carry the momentum forward, losing to Kentwood then Skyline, finishing the season 9-9 overall after going 5-3 in the North.<\/span><\/div><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kentwood was within a few points of a 4A state volleyball title but fell just short Nov. 12 against Olympia at Saint Martin\u2019s University.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":237,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13556"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/237"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13556"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}