The look on Central Kitsap coach Gordy Bushaw’s face said it all during the Cougars first game Tuesday against North Kitsap in Silverdale.
He grimaced in anger, slouched back in his courtside chair as his girls started off with uncharacteristically sloppy play, making mistake after mistake.
“North came out and played really emotionally,” Bushaw said. “They played great defense and extended the rallies and let us make mistakes. And we did. We had 10 hitting errors.”
All those hitting errors added up to a 15-2 Vikings romp. And when starter Katrina Wetterhus went down with a sprained ankle, Bushaw exploded in rage and smashed his clipboard, sending pieces flying.
“We played them early in the year and handled them pretty easily,” Bushaw said. “We talked about not taking them lightly and we shouldn’t have. We were probably looking past North to Shelton on Thursday but we shouldn’t have. North’s much improved and they’re a good team. I think they’re going to be pretty strong in League. They gave Shelton a tough match last week and they gave us a tough one tonight.”
After the first match, Bushaw regained his composure and tried to rally the girls.
“I told them ‘It’s a brand new match. That one is over and we need to get back to playing smart and aggressive volleyball,’” Bushaw said. “We didn’t play smart or aggressive in the first game.”
It looked like the Vikings were going to take the second match as well as Katie Cortner nailed a pair of service aces to give the visitors a 7-2 lead. But the Cougars began picking away at the lead to go up 11-8. Adrienne Carter tacked on an ace for the Vikings to get the score to 11-9. The Cougars got the ball back and Lindsey Fryer nailed three consecutive aces and was the beneficiary of the final point.“The girls buckled down and put that first game behind them and played really well the rest of the match,” Bushaw said. “I was happy with that.”
The Cougars bounced back from a 3-0 deficit in the third match to win 15-5 and rebounded from a 7-4 hole to win the final game 15-8.
“The girls played well coming right out of the bat and we kept that momentum going starting the second game but somewhere we lost some focus,” NK coach Clay Blackwood said. “A couple mistakes and they went down a little bit. They gradually picked themselves back up, but it was a little too late at the time.”
The Vikings were led by Liz Tomsyck with five blocks and four kills, Carter had three blocks, eight digs and five kills and Cortner added 10 assists.
NOTES: The The Vikings followed the loss to CK with a loss to South Kitsap 16-14, 12-15, 4-15, 15-4, 10-15. “They came out with some fire,” head coach Clay Blackwood said of his team. “We’re just lacking the killer instinct to put us over the top.” Katie Cortner had 22 assists and four blocks for the Vikings; Jamie Heins had 13 digs, Carrie Tilton had eight, and Adrienne Carter had seven. Liz Tomsyck added 10 kills, nine digs, and seven blocks.
