Area Sports by Michael Dashiell

The rest of the Olympic League may be catching up to Sequim, North Mason and Olympic - but not quite yet.

Sequim's Wolves kept a half-game behind the league-leading Bulldogs with a pair of four-set wins against Kingston and Port Townsend last week.

After falling to Port Townsend twice last year, Sequim exacted some revenge as they topped the visiting Redskins 25-4, 26-24, 20-25 and 25-23 on Sept. 24.

The Wolves jumped to a 9-0 lead and another 14 unanswered points in the first set, then fended off the Redskins in two of the next three sets.

"We came out serving tough in the first game and P.T. didn't know what to do," Sequim coach Jennie Webber said. "We changed some players (later in the game) and it took us most of the game to get going."

Megan Zumbuhl led the attack with 14 kills while Caitlin Pallai had 11 and Maddy Zbaraschuk had nine. Kari Hankins had 29 assists, was 22-of-24 serving and added eight aces. Despite 10 serving errors in the second set, Sequim finished 73-of-84 on serves for the match, dropping P.T. to 1-3 in league play.

Two days earlier, Sequim similarly dropped a third set but wound up topping Kingston's Buccaneers, 25-22, 25-14, 21-25 and 25-12.

Pallai (nine kills, two blocks) and Zumbuhl (eight kills, two blocks) paced the offense, aided by Hankins' 27 assists.

Zumbuhl was a perfect 16-of-16 on serves while Hankins and Teyloure Ring had three aces each.

Defensive specialist Diana Earl had 12 digs.

Reserve Sierra Clark added two kills, four digs and was 13-of-14 on serves.

"We were off in the first game; we missed seven serves ... and our offense was not clicking," Webber said. "We had a chance to get everyone in the match, which is good."

Jordan Papp led the Bucs with 16 assists and Anna Finlon had 19 digs and seven kills.

Sequim's junior varsity swept Kingston in three sets.

The Wolves were scheduled to take on a formidable 3A North Kitsap squad (2-1 in league, 5-2 overall) on Sept. 30 - results were unavailable at press time. Sequim hosts Bremerton Oct. 7 and travels to Port Angeles Oct. 9.