The Bellevue volleyball team gave the Mount Si Wildcats a nice gift last Monday night. Their five-game Oct. 27 win over Juanita put the Wildcats in the position of clinching an outright berth to the SeaKing District tournament last Wednesday, Oct. 29, with a win over the Wolverines. Mount Si said “thank you, very much” with a 25-20, 25-5, 25-19 sweep of Bellevue, locking up second place in Kingco 3A with a 9-3 league mark, 11-3 overall, not counting tournament action.

Wildcat coach Bonnie Foote was pleased.

“It was a really, really nice match,” she said. “The score in the first and third game doesn’t really do justice for how we played,” Foote said.

“Having some of the girls back from injury is only making us better,” said senior Miranda Pratt

Junior Shelagh Macaulay (arm) and sophomore Paige Dahlberg (back) both returned to action after being out for some time. Dahlberg was out for a couple of weeks, while Macaulay hadn’t seen any action in over a month.

Macaulay for her part had four aces. Robyn Schirmer had 29 assists in addition to five aces and two blocks, while Pratt had 15 kills along with seven digs and two aces to lead the Wildcats. Aubrey Larion had a solid seven-kill, 11-dig, four-ace effort, and Cortney Tubbs added three aces and 11 digs to help the cause.

Going into this postseason, with a district tournament berth locked up, these two games coming up at the Kingco Tournament represent a chance to get the best possible seeding, and thus easiest possible road through the SeaKing district tournament. That said, the road through districts is going to be equally tough as it was last year. Only the Kingco tournament champion gets protected in the district draw, by not having to play in the first round loser-out bracket. One slip-up by Mount Si could cost them dearly. If they make it into the double-elimination portion of the district event, their chances of making state go up dramatically, since SeaKing this year has five state berths.

Foote expects depth and overall play to be key.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons, a lot of options,” she said. “Offensively, if our passers can do their job, [if we can] get Cortney and Bethany doing their jobs defensively and passing, I think that we’re peaking at the right time/ I think that we’re a great team.” Schirmer says fans can expect a lot of heart from the team as well.

“They can expect that we’re not going to give up without a fight,” she said.

Pratt’s goal is clear.

“First in state,” the Idaho-bound star said.

Mount Si opens postseason play 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 7, at Sammamish High School. against either Liberty or Juanita. They play again Saturday, Oct. 8, for their district tournament seeding.