Medical Lake collects volleyball playoff spot

The Medical Lake High School volleyball team knew exactly what it had to do to earn their first playoff berth for head coach Todd Harr, but they turned it all up a notch last Thursday on Senior Night.

The Cardinals not only got the win they needed to qualify for the postseason, but they did it in dominating fashion with a 3-0 win over Deer Park, the first sweep for the program since 2015.

Earlier in the week Medical Lake dropped a nonleague match to Mary Walker High School of Springdale 3-1 and a 3-0 Northeast A League loss at Colville.

"Early in the season we set our goal as making the playoffs and we put ourselves into a good position heading into the final week of the season," Harr wrote in an email. That matchup comes tonight (Oct. 25) at Freeman vs. Newport (4-8 NEA, 4-9 overall)

Medical Lake (3-9, 4-11) won that match with relative ease, 25-12, 25-16 and 25-18. Megan Goertz had a game-high 25 assists, Courtney Daylo added 12 digs and Ashlyn Tamietti had 10 kills. The Cardinals last won by a 3-0 count on Oct. 1, 2015 against Riverside.

"Everyone on the team knew it would take a full team effort to beat Deer Park and we did just that," Harr said. "We controlled the match from the opening serve and never looked back."

Harr was concerned with the emotions of such a busy night. "Having Senior Night along with a possible playoff berth I was unsure how much emotion would be bottled up into the night," Harr said. "The girls did a great job of transitioning from senior night to playing."

At Colville (8-4, 9-5), which won 25-21, 25-13 and 25-14, Medical Lake got 11 assists from Goertz, who also had a huge night vs. Mark Walker with 38 assists in a match that saw the Chargers claim wins of 25-13, 19-25, 28-26 and 26-24.

Paul Delaney can be reached at [email protected].