Volleyball wins again, beats Yakima Valley

NIC volleyball defeated Yakima Valley 3-0 Friday night to remain undefeated in conference play.

The number-one-ranked Cards came out sluggish, and found themselves tied 20-20 in the first set against a Yakima Valley team that is 6-26 on the season. NIC rallied to take the set 25-21, and won the second and third sets without much difficulty.

NIC’s “slump” over the last three games has come against opponents with a combined .309 win percentage. NIC played all three teams earlier in the season and on average won 25-17, 25-15, 25-13. NIC has fared noticeably worse against those same opponents the second time, winning on average 25-21, 25-18, 25-17.

“We’ve kind of been in a slump almost,” Chloe Knudson said. “We’ve been having great practices though and yesterday was probably one of the best practices we have ever had, but it’s just been kind of slow starting out on the court. We always pull it out somehow, but I wish we could just connect like we do in practice.”

Leading the way offensively for the Cards was Taylor Foster with eight kills, and was the first time this season that an NIC player did not total double digit kills in conference play.  Journey Tupea led the team in digs with 11, and Hokulea Vargas put up 29 assists in the 25-21, 25-14, 25-15 victory.

 Up next for the Cardinals (12-0, 23-3) is a match at Wenatchee Valley (1-10, 2-23) Wednesday Oct. 30 at 6 p.m. NIC had no problem defeating the Knights in their previous match-up, winning 25-10, 25-13, 25-15.

Kynzey Mitzel and four other Cardinals had double digit digs in the victory. That’s the most players with double-digit digs NIC has had in a three set match this season.

After visiting Wenatchee Valley, the Cards return to play their final home game of the season against rival Spokane (11-1, 28-1) Friday Nov. 1 at 6 p.m.

NIC ended Spokane’s 62 game winning streak earlier this season, and remains the only team to defeat the Sasquatch since 2017.

“It’s going to be a good game,” Knudson said. “I feel like we will perform better against them just because it’s a team we want to beat really bad, and we always seem to perform better against harder teams.”