Five is divine: Spikers qualify for state tournament

Published 1:00 pm Saturday, November 4, 2006

Bainbridge rides roller-coaster to head to Kennewick as the fifth seed.

Posted at 10:46 p.m.

RENTON – The Bainbridge volleyball team had to play three games back to back to back, but grinded it out as they beat Newport, then lost to Skyline but came back to defeat Seattle Prep to make it as the fifth and last seed out of the 3A Sea-King District 2 tournament Saturday at Liberty High School.

Against Newport, the Spartans dropped the first two games to the Knights by the scores of 25-22 and 25-23 before they took advantage of some Newport errors early on to go on a run and take the third game 25-7.

They continued their hot streak in the fourth game with a 25-8 win, but found themselves down 10-4 in the fifth game.

Bainbridge worked their way back, tied it up on a Newport error, then took the lead for good on an ace by Marijke Schwarz-Smith and won match point on a Daron Vandelur kill.

Against Skyline, Bainbridge hung tough, but couldn’t overcome the rocket right arm of Bizzy Williams as Skyline won by the score of 23-25, 25-17, 25-20 and 25-19.

Against Prep, the Spartans took it to the Panthers, winning game one 25-15 and game two 25-11, then came back from a 18-11 deficit to win 25-20 and punch their ticket to the state tournament for the fifth year in a row.

Bainbridge travels to the Toyota Center in Kennewick next Friday to play the number one seed from the third and fourth district at 8 a.m.