Everett Back to Winning Ways

Shoreline, WA -  After a week off, the Trojans were back in action on Friday night, and got a much needed win on the road over Shoreline.  The 18-9 Trojans sit squarely in 4th place in the north region standings, a half game ahead of Whatcom with five matches remaining in the regular season.  

The first set against the Dolphins appeared as though as it was going to be an EvCC runnaway as the Trojans jumped out to a 10-4 lead.  But Shoreline answered with a 6-1 run thanks in large part to 3 kills from Maliyah Toone.  The Trojans kept their composure and proceeded to rattle off the next seven points.  Shoreline got back to within five after trailing by as many as eight but the Everett offense combined with seven SCC service and hitting errors gave EvCC the early 1-0 lead.  

Once again Everett got out early, in the second set this time leading 11-4. The Dolphins refused to go away and climbed back into the match when Everett lost focus and gave up a 10-1 run.  Trailing by four the Trojans got back in it and tied the set at 20-20 on Allison Johnson's service ace.  But the complete comeback would not be for this set, and the Dolphins used another 4-0 run to secure the 25-22 set win.  

For the third set in a row, Everett took control from the onset and it was 12-4 before Shroeline took its first timeout after Annika Jones' 3rd kill of the set.  The timeout momentarily worked as Shoreline responded with five straight points, but the Trojans pushed the lead back out to 8 before any real damage could happen.  Annika Jones led the way with 8 kills en route to a 25-16 convincing set three win.  

Shoreline scored the first point of the fourth set, but that would be their only lead.  Malia Shepherd answered with a kill, followed by Jessica Eames' service ace (her 3rd of the match).  From that point the Trojans took control and forced a Dolphins timeout at 15-9.  Everett would close out the final ten points, via six service aces and more than made up for the lackluster 2nd set by dominating Shoreline 25-10.

Katie Serles set up 29 assists and added 4 service aces, 4 kills, and 9 digs.  Malia Shepherd recorded 10 kills and had her second highest total of service aces this season with 7.  Camille Clarke flew around defensively with 20 digs and also added a couple of assists.  The highlight performance of the evening came from Annika Jones, who's 16 kills ties her career high, and added 4 service aces makes the 20 total points the highest of her career.  For her efforts Annika was named the north region offensive player of the week.  As a team the Trojans dominated the net with 8 combined blocks and the 20 total service aces is a new team high for the season.  A .197 hitting percentage also rates as the highest team percentage since September 20th in which the team hit a remarkable .317 (also against Shoreline).

Everett will next face Whatcom in a pivotal north region match up that will have playoff implications on the line.  The Trojans defeated Whatcom in the previous match up back on September 22nd in Bellingham, but the Orcas have played tough over the past couple of weeks, taking a set from top ranked Bellevue, and nearly pulling off the upset against Edmonds going to five sets.  The match will start at 7pm on Tuesday October 17th and will also be a Dig Pink sponsored night in honor of breast cancer awareness.