SILVERDALE – The Bainbridge volleyball team got served.

“I don’t think they realized they were going to be that good,” head coach Julie Miller said. “That’s the best serving we’ve faced by far. Even last year I don’t think we faced servers that could serve that well. They were ridiculous.”

Not much else went right for the Spartans as they lost to the Central Kitsap Cougars by the scores of 12-25, 16-25 and 21-25 at Central Kitsap High School in Silverdale Thursday.

Both teams placed at state last season; Bainbridge took fourth in the 3A tournament while Central Kitsap was fifth in the 4A tournament in Kennewick.

The Spartans came into the game ranked eighth in the Seattle Times’ 3A volleyball poll.

The Cougars took an early lead in the first game and went up 24-5 before Bainbridge went on a quick eight point run to close the distance before middle blocker Lauren Forney finally put down a kill for game point.

Bainbridge took the lead in the second game but Central Kitsap kept it close before two Spartan errors put them back into the lead for good.

In the third game, Bainbridge took an early lead, but Central Kitsap came back to take the lead.

The Spartans kept it close late in the game, but too many kills going out of bounds and errors were their downfall.

Bainbridge was never in sync throughout the game, and Miller said they need to work on their passing.

“The girls are going to have to learn how to pass the ball if they ever want to run anything,” she said. “Unless you do that, you’re always going to be out of system.”

The first game of the season went better for Bainbridge as they defeated North Kitsap 25-13, 25-16 and 25-21.

The Spartans head to Auburn today for a tournament, then play at Rainier Beach on Tuesday and at home against West Seattle on Thursday.

Kickers in search of a win

SILVERDALE – After the first two games of his varsity coaching career, Bainbridge girls’ soccer coach Scott Druker said he and the team are working on trying to read from the same sheet of music.

“I switched around a few things,” he said. “They’re instinctively doing things from other past coaches, so they’re still getting used to me.”

The Spartans and the North Kitsap Vikings battled to a 2-2 tie on Tuesday in Poulsbo, but lost to the Central Kitsap Cougars 2-1 Thursday at Silverdale Stadium.

In both games Bainbridge was up 1-0 at the half.

Against the Cougars, Lucy Donahue scored the only goal of the game on an assist from Hallie Swan in the 14th minute.

But Central Kitsap came back to score twice in the first five minutes of the second half.

“They had an easy score and one was driven into the net (so hard) I don’t know if we had three people in there that could have stopped it,” Druker said.

Against North Kitsap, Haylee Baker scored in the 37th minute when she headed in one from a Lauren Ginder corner kick.

In the second half, the Vikings scored in the 55th minute to tie it up, but Donahue put Bainbridge ahead just a minute later off an assist from Ashley Waplinger.