Wildcats crush New Hope deacons

Aspen Brooks, For the Review

The Wildcats dominated on Saturday, easily handling the New Hope Christian College Deacons in three quick sets.

Coach Shane Kimura was pleased with the match, saying, “Just about everything went really well, we got everybody in, which was great.”

The Wildcats’ offense was on fire, totaling 32 kills, in contrast to only eight from the Deacons. Middle blocker Caiti Barrie, ’16, led the offense with nine kills, followed by Darian Stedman, ’19, Audrey Hyem, ’19, and ErykaKeoho, ’19, with five kills each. Serving was another high point of the night for the Wildcats, with a team total of 14 aces.

With an energetic crowd (including the Linfield swim team) cheering them on, the Wildcats capitalized on numerous ball-handling errors from the Deacons to win the first set 25-13.

The Wildcats continued to dominate in the second set, with the offense picking up speed. Barrie and setter Courtney Uyeda, ’16 kept the Deacons out of system by running several well-timed slides, racking up kills to win 25-10.

The third set went by in the blink of an eye, finished off by an ace from Uyeda to win 25-6.

The Wildcats’ next opponent is the University of Puget Sound Loggers, whom they will take on at 7 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 25 in the Ted Wilson Gymnasium.