PORT ANGELES — It didn’t come easy, but the Port Angeles Roughrider volleyball team kept its unbeaten Olympic League record intact.
Port Angeles took down the Olympic Trojans in four games Tuesday night, 25-16, 24-26, 25-19, 25-23.
The Riders (2-0 in league, 5-3 overall) fought off several Trojan rallies — neither team led a game by more than six points — to beat a squad that’s been a thorn in their side for several years.
“There’s not a word to explain how big [the win] was,” Rider head coach Christine Halberg said. “Olympic has gotten at least second [for district seeding] since I’ve been here.
“As far as going to districts this year, the top three are in for sure, so this was a huge match for us to get them.”
Port Angeles’ front row came up big in several critical points just as the match looked like it might slip away in the fourth game.
Junior Danielle Rutherford banged home five of her 14 kills in that deciding game, including two in a row to give the Riders’ their initial 4-1 cushion and one that put them a point away from taking the match.
One point later at 24-23, junior captain Kiah Jones slammed her 11th kill of the night to clinch it.
“The last game was really exciting . . . having a lot of runs and big plays,” Rutherford said.
“We knew that they competed against Sequim and they won, so it was pretty big for us. Walking into it, we really wanted to prepare ourselves.”
Middle hitter Darian Foley added 12 kills and three blocks in the match, Rutherford also had three blocks, two aces and nine digs and Jones one block and 12 digs. Taylyn Jeffers added seven kills.
Setter Emily Drake set them up with 28 assists, while also serving 12-of-12 with an ace.
“I felt like [Rutherford] and [Jones] did a great job of going up and attacking every time versus letting up sometimes when it gets tight,” Halberg said. “And Darian obviously did a great job in the middle, too.”
The trio certainly had its hands full dealing with Trojans Monica Phinney (17 kills) and Shannon Jackson (12 kills), who put constant pressure on the Riders at the net.
“We tried to line [Foley] up with their big middle [Jackson] so that she was always in the front row with her, which took away a little bit of her offense but made us . . . move around a little bit more,” Halberg said.
The Rider front row also benefitted from some dogged play in the back.
Points went back and forth throughout the match thanks in large part to the Riders’ ability to continually dig spikes from Phinney on the outside.
Chloe Johnston finished with 20 digs to lead the Riders, while Lauren Norton had 11. Johnston also connected on 19-of-20 serves and Norton 14 of 15 with an ace.
“The defense definitely kept us in the game no doubt,” Halberg said. “We went for some balls that looked like it was done, and it was like, ‘Oh, we got it over. All right.'”