By TIM WATANABE
Redmond Reporter
Being that his offensive hitters average about 5-foot-10, Redmond volleyball coach Ross Johnson thought he had a tall team.
Until the Issaquah Eagles stepped onto the court.
Issaquah, who was led by the mammoth trio of 6-foot-3 sophomore Alyssa Schultz, 6-foot-2 junior Stephanie Stoll, and 6-foot sophomore Rachel Roeder, defeated Redmond in four games on Tuesday night at Redmond High, 25-13, 25-14, 20-25, 25-10.
“They’re like a college team (in height),” he said. “I (thought) we were the tallest team. That’s amazing, and they’re young too. They’re loaded with talent for a few years.”
The Eagles improved to 2-2 and the Mustangs fell to 1-2. Redmond played Newport in another Kingco tilt on Thursday, after the Reporter’s deadline.
The Mustangs had trouble passing the ball in the first two games, and it took some time for them to get accustomed to the up-front height and faster pace of play of the Eagles.
“I saw that our team learned a lot through the course of the match about blocking especially,” Johnson said. “They were trying to catch up to the speed at which Issaquah plays, and that’s faster than anything we’ve seen so far.”
With their backs against the wall 0-2, the Mustangs turned it up in the third game. It was a neck-and-neck battle through the early going, with Issaquah leading 10-9. Then the Mustangs won a grueling 25-second point to tie the score at 10-10 and change the momentum of the match, retaining service and reeling off four consecutive points to lead 14-10.
Outside hitter Lindsey Eliason had three straight kills during the third game, as the fans sensed the tide was turning in favor of the home team. The Eagles rallied with four straight points to close the gap to 20-18 at one point, but after a Redmond time-out to stop the bleeding, the Mustangs held off the Eagles 25-20.
The victory was not without a little drama as setter Joanna French’s game-winning serve clipped the top of the net and dropped in, just out of reach of diving Issaquah players.
“The pressure was not on Redmond because (Issaquah) is obviously one of the best teams in our conference,” French said after the game. “We really pulled it out and showed them that Redmond has a chance at this. We’re not just a drop in the bucket.”
Although Redmond put up a fight at the start of the decisive game four, the Eagles ran away with the game, and the match, with well-placed serves and solid blocking.
“I’ve seen plenty of times when you’re down 0-2 and you take one game, and we started that fourth game well,” Johnson said. “But then Issaquah turned it on serving-wise, they jump service every ball, and that’s something we don’t see too much because we don’t have any jump servers right now.”
The ninth-year Redmond coach marveled at the athleticism of the Issaquah team, and noted that their height advantage over other teams will be something to watch.
In the match for Redmond, senior libero Taylor Danowski made some near-impossible digs to save some points, finishing with 25 on the night. Junior Joanna French contributed 19 assists, and Emily Squires as well as hitter Lindsey Eliason finished with six kills apiece.
Issaquah often forced Redmond into long, back-and-forth rallies, where the staunch Eagle defense would dig any spike that Redmond would come up with and force the Mustangs to commit an unforced error.
“Eventually we were the one to give up the point,” Johnson said. “We need to learn how to put it away the first time against good teams, and that’s really hard to do.”
At this point with a rebuilding team, coach Johnson stands steadfastly by his motto “It’s not how you start, but how you finish,” and is content with seeing his players simply learning and getting better each match.
“Our goal is to see improvement in our play every week, and so far that’s the way it’s gone,” Johnson said. “We’ll practice tomorrow and hopefully we’ll improve. Every other day we get to play somebody tough now for the next couple weeks. We got Eastlake next week too, so it doesn’t get any easier for us.”
Redmond actually played Issaquah in the season-opening jamboree a few weeks ago and got routed by the Eagles 25-6, so just to be able to take a game off the talented squad was an accomplishment for the Mustangs.
“To take a game off of Issaquah… it’s a little bit of a moral victory,” said Johnson, who coached the team to a Kingco title in 2006. “But I’m not big on moral victories. I like real victories, and I know the kids do too.”
