By Ray Hamill — A team that continues to set a high standard on the volleyball courts and a pair of runners who got their league campaign off to a flying start feature in our weekly awards this week.
The Arcata Tigers got league play off to a statement start in volleyball last week, dominating defending league champion Eureka in three sets.
And they have not put a foot wrong since then, overcoming an always-difficult trip to Crescent City and following that with back-to-back wins over Fortuna and McKinleyville this week.
And that makes Arcata our choice for team of the week.
Head coach Laurie Griffith always fields fundamentally sound and competitive teams, but this year she’s succeeding with a young team that features just two seniors on a roster of 13, and it’s a team that has shown tremendous improvement over the course of the season.
A 4-0 record leaves them all alone atop the Pacific League standings halfway through league play and three wins from claiming at least a share of the championship.
Several players are enjoying big seasons with the team, including the two seniors, Eli Kanzler and Kyla Kinyon.
Kanzler is second on the team with 92 digs, while Kinyon is second in kills with 104 and also has a team-best 36 blocks.
Junior standout Betty Miles also is making her presence felt and leads the Arcata attack with 127 kills, while sophomore Lily D’Usseau has been a force on defense and leads the way with 167 digs.
Another junior, Karely Ruiz, has been the main provider and has dished out a team-high 355 assists, while a freshman, Lotus Low, has been setting a high standard at the service line with a co-team-high 29 aces, along with D’Usseau.
Our athletes of the week, meanwhile, go to a pair of Eureka cross country runners who each got their league campaigns off to impressive starts on Wednesday.
Senior Ryder Bullman won the boys race in dominating fashion, comfortably beating rivals Juan Ornelas of Fortuna and Evan Poston of Arcata for the victory.
Bullman won the league-opening race by 53 seconds, which was his third career league win, all of them coming at Fortuna.
He finished the 5K course in a time of 18 minutes, 4.5 seconds and looks set for a big fall in his final year of high school competition.
Sophomore Iris Bartlett, meanwhile, won the girls race and was even more dominating.
In her first-ever league race, the Loggers standout won by more than two minutes, crossing the finish line in a time of 22:09.3.
It was her first career victory at the high school level, after she also placed second at the recent Jim Hunt Invitational in McKinleyville.
The youngster also looks set for a big season.
For more on their big week, see Eureka’s Bullman, Bartlett lead the way in league opener at Fortuna …
