The Northwest Conference volleyball and girls soccer standings have seen surprises aplenty four weeks into the season. Some local girls swim programs notch first wins, others stay undefeated and the area’s top athletes earn state bids in the early season.
Western Washington University men’s golf kicked off its season with a packed five-day schedule, and women’s soccer notched a draw in the second game of its Great Northwest Athletic Conference schedule.
For everything prep football-related, see this week’s football forecast.
Here’s everything else you may have missed from the last week in fall sports.
Prep
Volleyball
Five Northwest Conference volleyball teams are undefeated or have just one loss approximately four weeks into the season. On the flip side, three teams remain winless.
Burlington-Edison (8-0, 6-0 NWC) has emerged as the league’s overall front-runner, recently handing Meridian (7-1, 5-1 NWC) its first loss of the season in sweeping fashion on Monday, Sept. 25 to stay undefeated.
In the league-specific rankings, Lynden (7-1, 6-0 NWC) is tied with Burlington-Edison for the top spot despite its one non-league loss to Class 4A Curtis earlier in the season. The Lions have won four straight games and most recently beat Nooksack Valley on Thursday, Sept. 21 and Sedro-Woolley on Tuesday, Sept. 26 — both in straight sets.
Sehome (5-1, 5-1 NWC) has been the biggest of the early season, though maybe not to itself. The Mariners, who are led offensively by sophomore outside hitter Hayden Niewiadomski, have won five straight matches, all sweeps, following their season-opening loss to Lynden on Sept. 6.
As of Monday, Sept. 25, Niewiadomski was second among Whatcom County players in kills per set with 5.07 — trailing only Meridian’s Emry Claeys (5.12) — according to Whatcom Preps.
Anacortes (6-1, 5-1 NWC) is also in the mix at the top of the NWC standings through its seven games played.
Lynden Christian (5-2, 4-2 NWC) began its season 3-0, but it has since split its last four games. The Lyncs dropped games against Lynden and Meridian but swept Blaine on Thursday, Sept. 21 and Mount Baker on Monday, Sept. 25.
Bellingham (3-3, 3-3 NWC) has fallen into a slight skid, losing back-to-back games to Sehome (Wednesday, Sept. 20) and Ferndale (Tuesday, Sept. 26).
Blaine, Mount Baker and Sedro-Woolley all remain winless through four weeks.
Girls swim
Bellingham is yet to lose a dual meet so far this season, currently sitting at 4-0 following its 112-67 win over Sehome on Thursday, Sept. 21.
The Bayhawks’ Grace Sorenson leads all Whatcom County swimmers in six individual events, and she is a member of Bellingham’s county-leading 400-yard freestyle team that includes Sierra Higgins, June Wilson and Peyton Acord, as well as its 200-yard medley relay team with the same members.
Lynden edged Squalicum in a dual, 94-81, on Tuesday, Sept. 26. Squalicum’s Ariel Fuhrman posted a 2A state-qualifying time of 5:43.76 in the 500-yard freestyle as the Storm won six events — eight including the pair of event wins by Blaine’s Hailey Ferrell who co-ops with Squalicum. Lynden had six first-place finishers in the meet.
Sehome also picked up its first dual win of the season in a narrow one-point win over Sedro-Woolley, 81-80, on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
Girls soccer
Ferndale (6-0-1, 3-0-1 NWC) and Sehome (6-0-2, 3-0-0 NWC) are dueling for the league lead, while Bellingham (5-1-1, 2-0-0 NWC) is a close third.
Following Ferndale’s 4-0 win over Burlington-Edison on Tuesday, Sept. 26, the Golden Eagles have outscored opponents 23-5. Sehome beat Mount Vernon 3-1 on Tuesday, Sept. 26, and the Mariners now possess a 35-13 point differential of their own.
Ferndale and Sehome will meet for a crucial match at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 3 at Sehome High School.
Bellingham, like the former two schools, has not yet suffered a league loss. The Bayhawks’ only loss of the season was a non-league defeat — 3-1, at the hands of Class 4A Mount Si — and they have won two straight games since Wednesday, Sept. 20.
In Class 1A, Meridian (3-3-1, 1-0-1 NWC) battled to a scoreless draw with Blaine (1-2-2, 0-0-1 NWC) on Tuesday, Sept. 26. The Trojans are the clear front-runner in the conference with Nooksack Valley (1-5, 1-1-0 NWC) being their closest competitor.
Lynden Christian (0-7-0) and Mount Baker (0-3-0, 0-2-0) are both winless.
WWU
Men’s golf
Western men’s golf had a busy first five days of its 2023–24 season, playing a pair of two-day tournaments from Sept. 22–26.
The Vikings finished sixth among 13 teams (11-over-par 875) during the SMU Bishop Invitational Sept. 22–23 at The Home Course in Dupont, Washington. Juniors Seth King and Ryan Ho each tied for 11th place out of 69 golfers with a 1-over-par 217 to lead the Vikings.
Western then came home for its only home meet of the season, the WWU Invitational, Sept. 25–26 at the Bellingham Golf and Country Club. The Vikings turned in a much more impressive performance, finishing second out of 11 schools present.
Freshman Nathan Yocam led Western, tying for third out of 67 players with a 2-under-par 214 in the collegiate debut. King added another solid finish to his resume, tying for sixth — alongside sophomore Peter Dionne-Yahr — with an even-par 216.
The Vikings entered day two of the tournament tied for fourth before tallying a 7-under-par 281 as a team on Sept. 26. That effort was enough to boost Western to a second-place overall finish.
Western will now wait nearly a month until its next tournament, which will be at the Mauna Lani Golf Course in Waimea, Hawaii from Oct. 23–24.
Women’s soccer
The Vikings notched their second tie of the season, 1-1, against Seattle Pacific in their second league match of the year on Saturday, Sept. 23.
Sophomore Morgan Manalili, the 2022 GNAC freshman of the year, scored Western’s lone goal in the 82nd minute. Senior goalkeeper Claire Henninger saved six shots.
Western (3-2-2, 1-0-1 GNAC) will go back on the road for a match against Saint Martin’s (3-2-1, 1-1 GNAC) at 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28.
Girls soccer standings — Sept. 28
| Girls soccer | League | Overall |
| Team | W-L-T | W-L-T |
| Ferndale | 3-0-1 | 6-0-1 |
| Sehome | 3-0-0 | 6-0-2 |
| Bellingham | 2-0-1 | 5-1-2 |
| Oak Harbor | 2-2-1 | 5-2-1 |
| Meridian | 1-0-1 | 3-3-1 |
| Anacortes | 1-1-0 | 4-3-0 |
| Sedro-Woolley | 1-1-0 | 4-2-1 |
| Nooksack Valley | 1-1-0 | 1-6-0 |
| Lakewood | 1-2-0 | 3-4-0 |
| Mount Vernon | 1-3-0 | 2-5-0 |
| Lynden | 0-1-1 | 4-2-2 |
| Blaine | 0-0-1 | 1-2-2 |
| Burlington-Edison | 0-1-0 | 4-3-0 |
| Squalicum | 0-2-0 | 1-6-0 |
| Mount Baker | 0-2-0 | 0-3-0 |
| Lynden Christian | 0-0-0 | 0-7-0 |
Volleyball standings — Sept. 28
| Volleyball | League | Overall |
| Team | W-L | W-L |
| Burlington-Edison | 7-0 | 9-0 |
| Lynden | 6-0 | 7-1 |
| Meridian | 6-1 | 8-1 |
| Anacortes | 5-1 | 6-1 |
| Sehome | 5-1 | 5-1 |
| Lynden Christian | 4-3 | 5-3 |
| Lakewood | 3-3 | 4-4 |
| Nooksack Valley | 3-3 | 3-3 |
| Bellingham | 3-3 | 3-3 |
| Ferndale | 3-3 | 3-4 |
| Oak Harbor | 2-4 | 2-4 |
| Mount Vernon | 2-5 | 2-7 |
| Squalicum | 1-5 | 1-5 |
| Blaine | 0-5 | 0-5 |
| Sedro-Woolley | 0-6 | 0-7 |
| Mount Baker | 0-7 | 0-9 |
This story was updated at 10:22 a.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28 so standings reflected game outcomes from Wednesday, Sept. 27.
