With its head coach, Taylor Forney, absent from last Thursday’s game, the Eastside Catholic girls’ volleyball team knew it had to step up. And with the help of seniors Lauren Wiese and Avery Merritt, who co-led the team with 11 kills each, the Crusaders did exactly that — sweeping Roosevelt in three sets.
Coming off a hard loss against Holy Names, it was unclear how the Crusaders would respond to yet another potential hurdle in missing their coach. But EC seems to have their season on the right track after topping the Rough Riders on Tuesday before downing the Lakeside Lions 3-1 that same Thursday.
Eastside, never a team to back down, had their D1 bound seniors guide the team to victory. Despite Roosevelt pushing them in some sets — the third frame finished 26-24 in favor of the Crusaders — EC was able to see out the victory to claim its first conference win of the season.
Prior to the faceoff Roosevelt beat Issaquah, who the Crusaders lost to early on in preseason. So, they knew the match might not be an easy one. Merritt stated after the game,” Knowing the potential that Roosevelt had, we knew we had to come out with a super competitive mindset to get through them.” She led the team with 11 kills and helped the team to victory.
Both teams are looking to build off of last game. The Crusaders are set to do greats things in their upcoming game against Lakeside and are currently sitting at 6-2 and 7th in the 3A Metro League. Roosevelt is sitting at 1-5 and 15th in 3A Metro League, their next game will be against Bishop Blanchet.
