By Jeremy Martin

It’s often said that familiarity breeds contempt, and few area teams are more familiar with each other than West Seattle High and Chief Sealth International High School.

The first installment of this season’s neighborhood matchup was a ruckus affair hosted by Sealth and featuring a noisy and animated crowd.

The (25-16, 15-25, 25-11,25-21) Wildcat win initially looked like it may be a short night following a nine point opening game victory, but a fired up Seahawks team turned the match into a exciting and rowdy affair by sealing a double digit second game win; and making the visitors sweat through a back and forth final game.

However a massive spike from senior Makenzie Harrison gave the Wildcats (5-1) a 24-21 fourth game lead, a deficit Sealth was unable to recover from as the Wildcats took the win on the very next play.

The Wildcats were led by was led by Easton Baleto’s 10 digs, 5 aces and 19 kills, she was joined on the stat sheet by Aspen Knowles with 13 kills.

After Sealth walked away with a second game victory, West Seattle came out hard in the third, aiming to stay in control of the Metro Sound Division, showing its tenacity and aggressive net game in running out to a 14-6 advantage.

During the first game the teams proved to be evenly matched as both squads went on short runs but were unable to take more than a three point advantage until an epic rally ended on a Lydia Giomi block that put the Wildcats up 15-13, giving West Seattle the momentum it would need to carry it to the 9 point victory.

The second game however was a different story, as the Seahawks properly defended its home court with a double digit win that featured some very heady play from Sophie Boyd, whose agility and power on the net made life miserable for the West Seattle defense.

The teams traded games once again with West Seattle taking the third and opening the door for a very tight fourth.

Trailing 10-6 West Seattle's Lexi Ioane blocked a Sealth shot on net that gave serve and momentum to the wildcats who would go on to score five straight points before the Seahawks took back the serve.

Both teams would trade points from there on out, with Sealth even taking a 20-19 lead, but the Seahawks would never again capture the momentum it had during the match’s second game and West Seattle would head home down California Avenue with a victory in the latest chapter of this heated series.

Sealth’s statistics were not yet available as of post time.