Mount Si’s volleyball team took a big step last Wednesday, Sept. 29 towards repeating as Kingco champions with a convincing three set sweep of their top league rivals, Mercer Island.

The Wildcats won by scores of 25-11, 25-23 and 25-9 to move two games in front of MI for top spot going into the second half of the season, and coach Bonnie Foote was thrilled with how the team played. “I am a really proud coach right now. I am so proud of their performance. We never looked scared,” Foote said. “Even though we had a great lead, I did not feel that we let off and we kept them under pressure.”

Mount Si opened set one with three straight points behind strong serving from sophomore Lauren Smith, then proceeded to take control of the frame. A pair of aces by senior Catie Fry sealed the set up for the Wildcats. Fry, who has verbally committed to play college ball at Central Washington, in addition to these aces, added 23 assists and five digs. Her efforts throughout the contest were especially noteworthy as she was battling a thumb injury which had kept her out of the Wildcats’ game at Bellevue last Monday, Sept. 27, also a Mount Si sweep. Fry was just looking to put on a good show for the large crowd which attended. “We knew that Mercer (Island) was going to bring people, so we wanted it to be a really good, fun game for the fans,” Fry said.

It was a much tighter set two, as Mercer Island responded well and kept things interesting for much of the stanza. There were a large number of ties and lead changes throughout the set but with the game tied at 19-19, and the Wildcats on serve, Fry blocked an Islander kill attempt at the net to give Mount Si the lead for good. A kill by WSU-bound senior Zoe Gogan closed out the second set. Fry thinks winning such a tough set, maybe the toughest they’ve had all year, will pay dividends. “It just lets us know that we’re a good team and that we can focus for a long time and then when push comes to shove, that we can battle it out and keep our lead,” Fry said.

Smith’s serving again was key to open set three, as the Wildcats behind that rolled out to a 6-0 lead; it was all Mount Si from there, as several Mount Si players, including Gogan, senior Amanda Gates and junior Sarah McDonald, made key kills. An ace by McDonald locked the door on the victory. Smith had five aces and eight digs on top of a 25-assist effort filling in for Fry in the Bellevue win and she says fans should expect more.”They can expect more high energy for sure. They can expect me being DS (defensive specialist) and you can see a lot of Catie setting,” Smith said.