“POULSBO – Come see this team, Jeff Campbell told someone before the North Kitsap High School volleyball team played a match against Port Angeles Thursday night. We’re doing pretty good. ‘Pretty good’ may be an understatement from Campbell. After the Vikings made it a very rough night for the Rough Riders of P.A., beating them in three straight sets, the Vikings found themselves with a 12-2 record overall – 8-2 in league. The Vikings had a relatively tough go of the night in the first two matches, winning both 15-6. They dominated the third, but couldn’t help hearing a little razzing from the stands as they did. As the Vikings racked up 14 points with ease, then spent fifteen minutes trying to put the Rough Riders away for the night, a fan shouted from the back: It takes fifteen points to win! FIFTEEN! The Vikings got the message, and Amber Markwick served North Kitsap to a 15-4 win in the third game. In the first, North and P.A. sparred for a while before North pulled ahead. WIth Sheena Brundage serving, the return came over the net. Tara Smyth leaped up and tipped the ball to the floor on a P.A return. On the next play Brundage aced the Riders. On the next play Alice Wood hopped up and spiked the ball down, extending the lead to 6-4. A return that veered out gave the Vikings a 7-4 lead before Brundage’s serve was broken. Wood again made a play when North got the serve back. Playing at the net, she jumped up, met a Port Angeles player at the net, and spiked the ball to the floor. North went on to win the first game 15-6. The second game went like the first, with the two teams trading points early before North went ahead late. Amber Markwick served the Vikings to three straight points to open the game before P.A. inched their way back with a couple of points of their own. The Rough Riders serve was broken when Alice Wood again smacked the ball to the floor. North went on another run with Katie Courtner serving North to a 7-2 lead. After North scored an eighth point, P.A. scored two of their own before Brundage batted the ball over the net and through the defense for a service break, and North went on another run. With Brundage and Wood at the net, Amber Markwick setting up passes, and Tara Smyth flying in from the corner, North worked their way to a 15-6 win, their second in two games. The Vikings now only had to win a third game to take the whole match. And they looked easily on their way with Ashley Zygar serving. Zygar racked up a point. Then another. Then another. Then … you get the picture. With Zygar serving and her teammates aggressively setting and hitting. North rolled out fourteen straight points. It was the fifteenth that proved the most difficult. P.A. got a point. North’s serves went into the net, to the left of the net … everything but over. Markwick got the ball back after going up like she was going to slam a ball, then lightly touching it over. The ball dropped gently to the ground, but the following North Kitsap serve sailed into the net, and the crowd had to wait longer for the game to end. Finally, after possession had changed a dozen times since the fourteenth point, a serve by Markwick put the game away. Afterwards Campbell said the team was playing well. We mixed it up well, he said. Smyth especially had a nice game, with 12 kills and 12 digs. Her goal, Smyth said, had been to get 10 or more kills in the game. She and Campbell had worked on hitting from nine to five on Saturday, Smyth said, and now it paid off … even if the game wasn’t the most intense. We messed around a little, but we had fun, she said. “