Royal tops rival Wahluke
Royal's Kayla Smith, 10, makes a hit that causes confusion for four Wahluke players during the Royal-Wahluke prep volleyball match last Thursday.
Seila Jenks of Royal skips over the sideline to let the ball go out of bounds for a Royal point during the Royal-Wahluke prep volleyball match last Thursday.
ROYAL CITY - It was a tough opening week of volleyball for Royal High School last week, but a victory over arch-rival Wahluke made it all better.
The Knights won in four games, 16-25, 25-18, 25-20 and 25-23. Becca Lee led the attack with seven kills, Taylor Freeman had six, Lindsey Small had six, Kayla Smith had five and Seila Jenks had three.
"A very nice win for the Lady Knights," coach Paul Olsufka said. "We were able to spread the scoring out to a number of girls. A lot of aces on serving and kills by most of the girls. Kayla served well, and Seila was able to get good passes from her teammates to set them up for a good number of kills."
Becca Lee went 11-for-14 serving with one ace and eight digs. Smith went 21-22 serving with five aces and 15 passes.
Jenks served three aces and dished out 22 assists. Taylor Freeman went 16-16 with two aces, Small served 8-10 with one ace, and Allie Janett served two aces.
Tuesday's season opener did not go as well. Royal took one game but lost the match to Riverview, 17-25, 18-25, 25-16 and 17-25.
Lee went 12-14 serving with one ace, 11 digs and three kills. Jenks served 15-16 with two aces and eight assists. Smith went 8-9 serving with eight digs, two blocks and four kills.
The final match of the week, on Saturday, was a 9-25, 18-25 and 18-25 loss to White Swan. It did not yield many highlights for the Knights.
Smith went 8-9 serving with one ace, three kills and one block. Small served 10-10 with four kills and two blocks.
"The girls are showing they can compete with most everyone, just need to side-out more on opponents serving to get our serving going," Olsufka said. "We need to get off to a good start and build on the momentum. Consistency would be a key word for this group of girls."