Lynden Christian volleyball swept past a young Bellingham squad (25-16, 25-10, 25-15) to remain unbeaten in league play Tuesday, Sept. 17 at Lynden Christian High School.
Despite the sweep, Bayhawks coach Melissa Gonzalez Soto said her team showed potential in the first half of each set.
“The future for Bellingham is going to be bright,” Gonzalez Soto said. “They were hustling and working very hard and looking for those empty spots and I am proud of them.”
In the first set, Bellingham only had one service error and six attacking errors while the Lyncs had three service errors and six attacking errors. The two teams were tied at 15-15 before the Lyncs took over.
Gallery: Lynden Christian volleyball sweeps past Bellingham
“We started doing a better job of reading and picking up the junk,” Lynden Christian coach Dennis Janzen said. “We got to come back to our system. Eliana Meyer and Lyla Parriera were tremendous in the back row.”
The Lyncs scored eight straight points to take the lead for good, including kills from Danya Dykstra, Sydney Terpstra and Ella Fritts. Dykstra led the first set with four kills and a block, while Jocelyn Eshuis had two kills and three blocks.
Bellingham’s Olivia Siemanowski led with four kills and Mary Lockhart and Sonoma Smith finished with three kills.
“I see a lot of room for improvement,” Gonzalez Soto said. “I think they will be really solid at the end of the season but they are still learning their positions. They need to build their confidence and trust themselves a bit more in serve-receive.”
In the second set, both teams were tied at 7-7 before a Bellingham kill was overturned to an error and Lynden Christian stole the momentum again.
“The credit goes to the passers and defenders getting the ball to Ellana,” Janzen said. “I think she is becoming one of the best setters in the state.”
Lynden Christian had four aces in the second set as well as six players registering at least one kill.
Lynden Christian pulled away early in the third set, taking a 10-3 lead. However, Bellingham responded with two aces from Smith and a few kills from others to make it 14-12. Yet, Lynden Christian sealed the game with one final run.
“There are several players who had upgrades from stuff we practiced,” Janzen said. “They had some great adjustments, too.”
Lynden Christian (3-1, 2-0 Northwest Conference) travels to Blaine (0-3, 0-2 NWC) at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19. Bellingham (0-3, 0-2 NWC) hosts Sehome (1-1, 1-1 NWC) at 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Nick Zeller-Singh is CDN's sports reporter; reach him at nickzellersingh@cascadiadaily.com; 360-922-3090 ext. 104.
