A year ago, the Kent-Meridian High volleyball team was on the outside looking in.
The Royals finished the regular season in a three-way tie for the fourth-and-fifth postseason berths from the South Puget Sound League North Division, then were eliminated in mini-playoff that also involved Kentridge and Tahoma.
Talk about a lonely feeling.
Motivated by last year’s late-season collapse, the Royals are doing everything they can this fall to assure themselves that feeling won’t strike again.
“We definitely remember that moment,” said K-M’s Cherene O’Hara. “We want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
On Wednesday night against Auburn, O’Hara took matters into her own hands, hammering out 23 kills, pulling up 16 digs and dishing out four assists in a 3-1 (26-24, 25-20, 17-25, 25-14) win over Auburn. Sophomore Chloe Watson also delivered a standout performance, racking up 17 kills, 13 digs and three blocks.
The win helped the Royals even up their league record at 2-2, but more importantly helped them end a two-match slide after losses to Tahoma and Auburn Riverside, both of which are unbeaten in SPSL North play. The top five teams in the North advance to the playoffs. If the parity in the current SPSL North standings are any indication as to how things are going to play out, wins like the one over Auburn Wednesday night will prove vital at the end of the regular season.
“I’m happy with the win, but I definitely think we can play better,” said Kent-Meridian coach Mike Christiansen. “We haven’t played our best yet. We want to be able to play consistently good. We are getting closer.”
The key to the Royals’ success likely hinges on the play of O’Hara, a 6-foot-2 tower of power, who has racked up double-digit kills with regularity this fall. A senior, O’Hara has come into her own this season, Christiansen said.
“She has really bought into the stuff we do in the offseason. She has spent a lot of time in the weight room and doing winter conditioning,” the coach noted. “She’s just much stronger this season. Every time she hits the ball, she hits it so dang hard, that (opponents) can’t pass it.”
O’Hara, a two-time second-time all-leaguer, might be the most accomplished and talented player to come through Kent-Meridian since Mel Tuivai, a 2001 graduate who owned the net during her time at the East Hill school. In a league that’s wide open in regards to which teams advance to the postseason, the race for league MVP is just as close.
O’Hara deserves mention among the best, Christiansen said.
“She belongs right up there,” he said said.
As much as the K-M senior would like to earn first-team honors this fall for the first time, O’Hara has more pressing issues on her mind. Specifically, helping the Royals advance to the postseason after falling just short a year ago.
“We feel we have something to prove,” she said. “(Against Auburn) we went out with the mentality that we had to get it done. Our team has the potential to be a state-winning team. Right now, we just really need to work on our consistency. We need to tie up some loose ends, and once we get there, we’ll be unstoppable.”
And in the playoffs.
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