The Bainbridge Spartans volleyball squad has added another accolade to their 2024 campaign: a district championship.
A 3-1 victory over the Washington Patriots at Fife High School completed a three-win run to secure the program’s first-ever district title. The Spartans swept Kingston in their sole district match Nov. 8 before defeating Sequim by the same margin to advance to the championship match.
Coach Holly Rohrbacher said it wasn’t too difficult to keep her state-bound girls focused on the task at hand by tournament’s end. “We knew we had already qualified for state, but we were playing for the matchups to come,” she said.
Where Bainbridge brought the firepower, Washington had the defense and hands at the net to match early on. Attackers like senior Holley McFadden and sophomore Zariyah Francis struggled to get clean swings off without at least two sets of Patriot hands across the way.
The defining moments of the match came in the second set, in which Washington powered its way to a 12-3 lead before the Spartans fought all the way back. Despite dropping the set, Rohrbacher said, “We realized we were going to win (the match). It sounds weird, but we knew we got the momentum back, and we were going to keep it.”
Keep it they did, and they’ll hope to carry that momentum into their first trip to state since 2021.
Joining them in their trip to Yakima is North Kitsap, though the Vikings’ path to state was especially challenging. After a 3-2 victory to fend off an Orting upset Nov. 8, Washington got the better of them 3-1 in the semifinals. The Vikings would have to play a loser-out match to secure their state berth, which they did in a 3-1 win over Olympic.
“We’ve overcome things for sure. We’ll prepare for whatever team we end up getting, watch some tape and go from there,” said North Kitsap coach Kaelea Makaiwi.
Olympic as a result fell just short of what would have been the program’s first state berth since 2011. The Trojans swept Eatonville and took Sequim to five sets in a quarterfinal loss Nov. 8 before beating Kingston to set up the last match versus the Vikings.
Kingston won their first match of districts against Fife 3-1 before losing out.
The seeding committee is expected to release the 2A state bracket in the coming days.
Bainbridge junior Cate Torell goes for an attack against the Washington Patriots.
Olympic junior Jillian Bazzell prepares to serve against North Kitsap.
North Kitsap senior Teegan DeVries sets the ball for a Viking attack.
