LYNDEN – Lynden volleyball handed Burlington-Edison its first loss of the season in straight sets (25-18, 25-21, 25-15) on Thursday, Oct. 19 at Lynden High School.
The Lions (14-1, 13-0 NWC) control sole possession of first place in the Northwest Conference for the first time this season. The win puts Lynden in reach of its second-straight league title, as a win versus Mount Vernon on Monday, Oct. 23 would secure the NWC championship for the Lions.
Burlington Edison (14-1, 12-1 NWC) came into the game as the only undefeated team in the conference, but their inexperience showed. They do not have a single senior on the roster, whereas Lynden starts five seniors.
The Lynden faithful showed up for the game and brought early energy. Lynden head coach Chris Elsner had a brief message to the team: “Turn it loose, play our style of volleyball,” she said.
The moment wasn’t too much for the Lions as they came out loose and ready to play. The Tigers made a couple of early mistakes which helped Lynden jump out to a lead in the first set. ]
Senior outside hitters Ashley Shumate and Haylee Koetje each had powerful kills that ignited the crowd early. The crowd energy played a huge role in the game. In the first set, the Tigers had five missed serves and multiple serve-receive errors.
Shumate finished off a great first set from the Lions with a monster kill to win them the set, 25-18.
Lynden picked right where it left off in the second set. Senior setter Grace Rice executed a perfect setter dump that bounced directly in between all six Burlington-Edison players to score the first point.
The Tigers, however, came out looking a lot better and eliminated the mental errors they had in the first set.
Burlington-Edison built up some momentum and forced an early set timeout, but the Lions had an answer for everything. Lynden got a huge kill to steal momentum back out of the timeout.
“We didn’t allow too many dips to happen. We passed and served well. And we kept them out of the system,” Elsner said.
Lynden achieved their biggest lead of the set at 21-16 and Burlington-Edison head coach Tawnya Brewer had to use her last timeout of the set. Rice emerged with an ace, and a few points later sophomore Rian Stephan finished the set with her own monster kill. The Lions won set two 25-21.
Lynden used a missed serve and an out-of-rotation call against the Tigers to go up 6-4 early in the third. The teams played even until Lynden got a forceful kill by freshman Finley Parcher that put it up four, forcing another Burlington-Edison timeout.
Lynden kept its foot on the gas, scoring the first five points out of the timeout, and Brewer used another timeout.
The Lions then cruised to victory in the third set, 25-15, to seal the win.
“It is just another step towards our goal, and we’ll just continue to get back in the gym and get better,” Elsner said. “There’s so much season ahead of us, and so this was just one piece of that.”
Shumate led Lynden with a team-high 11 kills and 14 digs. Koetje tallied seven kills while senior libero Mya VanderYacht finished with 12 digs and four aces. Rice facilitated the offense, totaling 28 assists while adding 11 digs on defense.
Lynden hits the road for a 7 p.m. match Monday, Oct. 23, facing Mount Vernon (3-12, 3-10 NWC). Burlington-Edison stays on the road with a chance for redemption at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21 against Nooksack Valley (9-4, 9-4 NWC).
