Newport volleyball falls to Issaquah in regular season finale

Monday night's KingCo 4A regular season finale between Newport and Issaquah was for all the marbles. Issaquah was sitting at a perfect 9-0 in league play, yet the Knights, at 8-1, could capture the KingCo regular season title with a win.

Monday night’s KingCo 4A regular season finale between Newport and Issaquah was for all the marbles.

Issaquah was sitting at a perfect 9-0 in league play, yet the Knights, at 8-1, could capture the KingCo regular season title with a win.

In the end, however, it was the Eagles who made quick work of Newport, sweeping the Knights 25-14, 25-17, 25-18.

“They are a really quality team that runs a nice offense,” said Newport coach Steve Trachy. “They made us look inexperienced.”

Newport led the first set 13-9 when a scoring mistake caused officials to huddle. When all was said and done, the score was changed to 12-11 Newport.

The Knights never recovered. Issaquah (14-0, 10-0 league) scored the next 11 points, won the set and never trailed in the final two sets.

“We wanted to try and jump out on them, put a lot of pressure on them early…that was our strategy and our goal,” said Issaquah coach Todd Parsons. “The girls executed very well tonight.”

Newport was having trouble handling the Eagles serves, Trachy said. The result was the ball being hit easily over to Issaquah, where the Eagles could set up their offense with ease.

The result, typically, was a kill from 6-foot-1 senior outside hitters Sara Hanna (17 kills) or Rachel Roeder (14 kills).

“Every game we go out expecting to win,” said Roeder, who also had 10 digs. “Our coach has taught us to always believe that the team we’re playing is ranked No.1 in the state and we want to take them down.”

For Newport, the loss was a missed opportunity to capture a league title on the last day of the season.

“We played our hardest, we could have done better, but they’re a really good team,” said senior outside hitter Allie Bagley, who led Newport with 10 kills. “I think we still have a shot…I think now that we’ve seen a team like this, we’ll be better off.”

Newport is now the No.2 seed in KingCo, and will host its side of the league tournament bracket, which begins on Saturday. The Knights will take on Garfield (5-9, 4-6) in the opening game.

“We’re in a good position, getting to host,” Trachy said. “We did enough during the season to get to this point.”