By Jeremy Martin

West Seattle High School knew what was at stake going into its Saturday afternoon SeaKing District 2 volleyball match with Blanchet.

A loss at 1pm would mean the Wildcats season would be over, win and stick around the Chief Sealth gymnasium for two more games and a chance to move on in the state playoffs.

Maybe it was nerves, maybe it was youth but 4th seeded West Seattle fell to the 7th seeded Braves in straight sets (25-20, 25-16, 25-20) ending an otherwise successful season for the young Wildcat team.

“We try to put them in positions of being comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Through the season I try to get those younger players in there so they get accustomed to the pressure and to the crowd; their learning. We’re getting better and hopefully next year a lot of those younger players will step up,” West Seattle head coach Joe Baleto said of a wildcat club that will only be losing four seniors to graduation.

Two of those seniors include Second Team all Metro Sound division selection McKenzie Harrison who finished the match with 8 digs and 3 aces and two time Metro Sound Division MVP Eastyn Baleto who stuffed the stat sheet with 22 Kills, 14 digs, 3 aces and 3 blocks.

Though the Wildcats will be losing some key talent next season, they also return several key components of this year’s squad; including Sound Division first team selection Aspen Knowles who had 10 Kills, 5 digs and 2 aces against Blanchet as well as Sound Division honorable mention players Gabby Sarver and Lexi Loane.

Sarver finished the game with 28 Assists and 3 digs while Loane had 3 digs and four blocks.

Trailing two sets to zero with the match hanging in the balance, The Wildcats were able to fight itself to a 17-17 tie in the third; building much needed confidence in the hope of extending the match further.

But following a timeout, Blanchet would scrape together three quick points, taking the lead for good and ending the Wildcat’s season.

“The girls kept it together, though we didn’t capitalize on a lot of their mistakes so that was the tale of the game right there,” Baleto said. “They were serving tougher, and we weren’t passing well. That’s been the way it’s been going during this whole tournament. As you get deeper the serving gets tougher and you need to pass better.”

The Wildcats routinely started fast, scoring the first point of each of the three sets, but were unable to sustain any momentum though the course of the match.

“We didn’t play a mental game, we lost it mentally. I thought if we had kept the ball in play and not made mistakes it would have at least kept us in the game,” Baleto said.

The Braves were led by Sophie Beckley’s 10 digs and 6 kills, Sophie Sliger’s 18 assists and Marit Thorkildsen’s 14 digs.