It has been a historic season for Volleyball at Peninsula High School. The Peninsula Seahawk Volleyball teams stayed poised, knowing every Thursday evening, the Hawks had one mission. To protect the home court at all cost. 

Peninsula Volleyball is filled with talent to the point where the Seahawks seemed to have two Varsity teams. Junior Varsity (JV) posted a record of 11-2 this season, smothering opponents all year. While Varsity played with the other top dogs in the South Sound Conference, posting a record of 11-3. Varsity played one more game than JV did, which was away at Timberline, and resulted in a 3-0 Peninsula victory. Varsity protected their home court well, showing a record of 5-2 at home with losses to Central Kitsap and Capital. But the girls dominated on the road, marching into schools across the region ending the season with a 6-1 record as the visiting team, with their lone loss on the road coming from Capital. Last year’s SSC (Co)MVP Maeve Griffin returned for her senior year to assume the role of Captain for the Hawks. But rising volleyball stars Laney Lovrovich, and Josie Hampton had outstanding seasons, and both have a shot at this year’s league’s MVP. Josie Hampton was a scoring machine, and even had one game where she scored twenty points for the Hawks, while Lovrovich never let the ball touch the ground in her zone, wreaking havoc on opposing teams. Last season, Lovrovich was a first team conference player, with Josie Hampton and Tommi Gallucci on her heels as second team conference players. With all of this talent on the roster, the Seahawks had one of the best seasons in history, and have put up a strong fight in the 2019 WIAA state Playoffs.

Peninsula Volleyball advanced to the state tournament with the top teams in the state. After beating both Wilson High School, and Prairie High School 3-0, the Seahawks only took one loss in the tournament which was to conference rival Capital, who clenched the SSC this year with a 13-1 record. With their lone loss in the tournament, the Seahawks were down but not out, winning their last game of the bracket 3-1 against Central Kitsap, and with that the Girls qualified for state. The Top six teams from the State tournament advanced to the 3A state tournament at the SunDome in Yakima. The Seahawks were deemed the second best team in the bracket, and qualified for state. The first ranked team in the state’s 3A division is none other than the team Peninsula failed to beat this year, the Capital Cougars. It is worth mentioning that Gig Harbor, PHS’s fiercest rival was given the third seed in the tournament. 

In round one of the playoffs, PHS played the Arlington Eagles, in hopes to move on in the playoffs. The team recognizes that these are the best teams in the state, and nobody is backing down without a fight, their game against Arlington was a perfect representation of how dominant all teams can be. The Seahawks found out how dominant tens can be, but they found out the hard way. Peninsula played hard but the wheels came off in the playoffs, Losing 3-1 in their first match against Arlington. The team had a chance to stay in it, but took their final loss of the year, in a 3-2 nail biter against Seattle Prep.

While a deep run in the playoffs is certainly a way for Seniors Maeve Griffin, Zoe Erkers and Ryen Hall to end their time at PHS, Peninsula is being left in good hands. Head coach Katrina Cardinal recognizes that she has a ton of raw talent on this team, and even had a few Freshmen starting on Varsity this year. It’s no surprise that the JV squad produces varsity players, the only problem PHS will have for a few years is who to pick from the talent pool. 

Stats, scores and rankings are according to http://www.sscathletics.org/ and https://www.maxpreps.com/