From the Goal Line

The MIHS girls volleyball team will start the Sea-King district on Thursday night, after a big upset in the KingCo championship tournament game last weekend to knock Mount Si out of the top spot.

Before the girls went to KingCo they played their final two games of the regular season and due to space limitations I wasn’t able to fit all the info in so here’s a quick recap of those games.

In the week leading up to the tournament the Islanders swept their regular season opponents, beating Sammamish and Interlake.
Last Tuesday night the Islanders played for the last time this season in their home gym, beating Sammamish in three games. The final scores were 25-15, 25-16 and 25-12 over the Totems.
During the match Ariel Dewey posted 24 assists while senior Sabrina Rasmussen, playing for the last time at the MIHS gym had six kills and six aces against the Totems. Kaylia Balinbin had nine kills, Krinstine Fu, making her first start this season, had four aces, while Alisa Owens had six aces and Lorial Yeadon had five kills. The Islanders were strong across the floor, with big net blocks during all three games from Erin McKiernan and freshman Madelyn Bloom.
Islander head coach Susan Rindlaub said following Tuesday’s win that the team is looking great, finally recovered from injuries and sickness which has plagued them all season long.
Against Sammamish the Islanders had their strongest serving game, with very few service errors, something they’ve worked at all season, Rindlaub said.
Last Wednesday the team traveled to take on the Interlake Saints in the last regular season game this year. The Islanders won in three games with final scores of 25-11, 30-28 and 25-23.
Dewey posted 35 assists for her teammate during the game and had five aces overall. Balinbin had 15 kills, while McKiernan had seven kills and Yeadon posted six play ending spikes over the net.
Rindlaub said the team is hopeful they will be facing off against Mount Si in the KingCo championship game, but that they have several games to play through before that happens.

Following the Sammamish game Rindlaub said she was proud of the team and had seen so much improvement over the course of the season.
“We have improved so much and we served better than we ever have tonight (against Sammamish). I think we had 20 aces as a team and only three service errors the whole match,” she said.
Heading into KingCo the first year head coach said she was fully confident the team had enough conditioning and practice to handle the playing load, which featured up to six games in one week, including the KingCo tournament.
Before the Islanders knew they would take on Mount Si in the finals, Rindlaub said she was hopefully that would be the outcome, wanting one more chance at the Wildcats team.
“The third time’s the charm, we’re hoping with them,” said Rindlaub and in fact it was as the Islanders cruised to win in five games.
After Sammamish, which happened to be senior night, a chance for the coach and the team to honor those players in their final year.
“They are all incredibly selfless people and players. They care so much about the team and the players. None of them play volleyball for the glory, they are here because they love the sport and are such good role models for all the kids,” said Rindlaub.

The team will take on the winner of the Metro No. 7/Metro No. 4 game which is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 5 at 5:30 p.m. The Islanders will start their district match at 7:30 p.m. that same night. If the team wins they will play at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning at Sammamish High School in the District semi-finals. If they lose the Islanders will move into the consolation bracket and play at 1 p.m. on Saturday.