More than at any point during the past decade, the race for the South Puget Sound League North Division title on the volleyball court appears to be up in the air.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really will be wide open,\u201d said Kent-Meridian coach Michael Christiansen. \u201cI think for a team to win our league, it has to go undefeated.\u201d<\/p>\n
If history is any indication \u2013 and it generally is \u2013 Christiansen is right on the money. Every SPSL North champion since 2002 has posted an unblemished league record. In fact, since 2000, the most losses the championship team has posted in league play is 1 \u2013 when Kentlake and Kentridge tied for the top spot with identical 7-1 marks. That said, however, every team that has taken the crown since 2003 has won it at least twice in a row and, in the case of Kentwood (2005-2008), multiple times.<\/p>\n
So who\u2019s it going to be this year?<\/p>\n
According to league coaches, Auburn Riverside is the odds on favorite, though not by much. The Ravens get the nod based on the simple fact that they return more first-team all-league choices \u2013 setter Brooke Bradbury and outside hitter Maureen Sachs \u2013 than any one of their North counterparts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all depends on if we stay healthy,\u201d said Auburn Riverside coach Chris Leverenz, whose team took third at state a year ago. \u201cI think volleyball is a little bit cyclical. You get really good classes in waves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those waves have come in spurts for a handful of SPSL North programs. For Kentlake, that wave came from 2000-2002, when the Falcons won three straight SPSL North titles, and three state championships. Auburn Riverside followed with a pair of league crowns only to be dethroned by Kentwood, which went on to win the next four before the Ravens ended that run in 2009. It\u2019s also worth noting that during Kentwood\u2019s four-year run of dominance, Kentlake finished in second each of those seasons.<\/p>\n
And though the Ravens are favored, the league is \u2013 on paper \u2013 ripe for the taking. The biggest reason for that, however, is because no clear-cut dominant player \u2013 like AR\u2019s Brooke Bray did a year ago \u2013 has emerged.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Auburn and Kent-Meridian both have some really good talent,\u201d said Kentwood coach Bil Caillier, whose team hasn\u2019t finished any lower than third in the SPSL North standings since 2000. \u201cI think we\u2019ll be good, but we won\u2019t be as dominant as we\u2019ve been in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the season unfolds, it has become clear that the SPSL North is going through a transition. Of the 35 players who earned all-league accolades a year ago \u2013 first team, second team or honorable mention \u2013 25 graduated. In fact, only three first-team selections from a year ago returned this fall, Kentwood\u2019s Erin Campbell along with Bradbury and Sachs.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us (to win league), it\u2019s all a matter of playing as a group,\u201d noted Christiansen, whose Royals haven\u2019t brought home the league\u2019s top spot since 1994.<\/p>\n
But playing as a group may take a while this fall as all of the teams took considerable hits from graduation. Tahoma, which qualified for state last year for the first time since 1976, may have been hit hardest by graduation, losing eight players, including standout Maria Bahlenhorst. Kentridge, however, wasn\u2019t far behind, losing seven players followed by Auburn (6), Auburn Riverside (5) while Kentwood and Kent-Meridian each graduated three. Then, of course, there\u2019s this year\u2019s wild-card team: Mount Rainier. Mount Rainier, which finished in the middle of the Class 3A Seamount League last fall, lost five players to graduation and now must contend with an SPSL North that annually advances at least two teams \u2013 if not more \u2013 to state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think whichever team finds that (dominant) player, will emerge,\u201d Christiansen said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
PLAYERS TO WATCH<\/b><\/p>\n
Erin Campbell, Kentwood; Cherene O\u2019Hara, Kent-Meridian; Brooke Bradbury, Auburn Riverside; Maureen Sachs, Auburn Riverside; Isia Johnson, Auburn; Allison Wuerch, Auburn Riverside; Victoria Labrie, Kentridge; Megan Hartnett, Kentlake; Rachelle Frets, Tahoma; Kendall Sanders, Kentridge; Kasie Seims, Kentwood.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
More than at any point during the past decade, the race for the South Puget Sound League North Division title on the volleyball court appears to be up in the air.
\n\u201cIt really will be wide open,\u201d said Kent-Meridian coach Michael Christiansen. \u201cI think for a team to win our league, it has to go undefeated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":13579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-13578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13578"}],"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\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13578"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=13578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}