Lake Stevens volleyball sweeps Snohomish in home-opener
Published 12:15 am Wednesday, September 9, 2026
LAKE STEVENS — At first, it didn’t look the same.
Five days after beating Stanwood 3-2 in their season-opener, Lake Stevens volleyball started slow in their home-opener against Snohomish on Tuesday. The reigning 4A State Champions had lost just one set in the regular season last year, and did not lose a set in the postseason until the championship — a 3-2 win against Curtis to win the first title in program history — but they did not exhibit that same dominance to start the match on Tuesday.
After a couple of Lake Stevens errors, a kill from junior Carly McIver and an ace from sophomore Brooklyn Rohrich put Snohomish ahead 8-3 in the first set.
Then it started to look pretty familiar.
After rallying back to tie it 8-8, the Vikings (2-0) stormed ahead 14-9 before picking up the first set 25-16, and they rolled to a dominant 3-0 victory (25-16, 25-16, 25-8) over the Panthers (0-2).
“For our team, we really work on communication and staying together as a family,” junior Ella Iseminger said. “That’s kind of our motto. We all wrote it on our hands, so kind of, during those tough times, we all huddled up and were like, ‘Hey, let’s go. We can do this together.’ But hard serves really helped us, and just playing as a team.”
Iseminger had 20 kills and 14 digs, while junior Miah Congdon (19 assists) and freshman Maia Aiwohi (17 assists) took turns setting teammates up all night. Junior Maddie Silvers (8) and senior Yalena Wilson (5) combined for 13 kills.
Lake Stevens returns several key contributors from last season, but this year’s team is still learning about itself following the departure of an impactful 2026 graduating class headlined by two-time Gatorade Washington Player of the Year Laura Eichert.
“We’re still trying to find our identity, you might say,” coach Kyle Hoglund said. “But it’s just getting everybody caught up to speed. We got a bunch of talented players, and letting them all figure out that they belong here and get the pieces put together.”
The nine juniors on the roster are aiming to take the leadership they observed from last year’s seniors — who never wavered despite a 2-0 deficit in the state championship — and embody it themselves as they ascend to upperclassmen.
“With (Eichert) being here last year, it was such a powerful person on the team,” Congdon said. “There was so much confidence. There was so much leadership, and the sophomores that year fed off of that, and we learned from her, and we learned from (fellow senior Olivia Gonzales), and we learned from Kam (Strom) and all the leaders. It was such a huge role for them to play because now we get to play it, too.”
Kills from junior Aubrey Deller and Iseminger as well as a couple of aces from freshman Lauren Phinney helped the Vikings even the score to 8-8 in the first set, and another run punctuated by back-to-back double blocks from Deller and junior Autumn Swobody put them ahead 14-9.
“That just brought us so much momentum,” Iseminger said. “The team loved it. It brought so much energy.”
From there, Lake Stevens got kills from all over the court to help put the first set away. Iseminger, Silvers, Wilson and junior Tatum Lewis all put points on the board before a receive from Wilson, a set from Congdon and a kill from Iseminger secured the 25-16 set victory.
After another back-and-forth start in the second set, the Vikings pulled away with a 10-4 lead before Iseminger took over. The outside hitter scored or assisted four consecutive points for Lake Stevens to bring the score from 15-7 to 19-10. Despite committing a handful of errors to give Snohomish points, the Vikings picked up the second set following an Iseminger attack that the Panthers tipped out, and an ace from Congdon on the ensuing serve.
“We won the first set, and then we came back and had the same score, but we wanted to smush it in their face,” Congdon said. “We came in knowing what we wanted to do.”
That only continued in the third set. A pair of aces from Congdon and two more kills from Iseminger put Lake Stevens ahead 4-0 to start, and while the Panthers remained close with an ace from freshman Brooklyn Beverford to cut it to 11-7, the Vikings proceeded to go on an 11-0 run with kills from Silvers, Deller and Iseminger. Junior Emily Heikes notched an ace, and the entire team attacked into spaces that caused Snohomish to misfire on attempted returns.
With a 22-7 lead, it only took a few more minutes to secure the match victory, and it happened in style. Aiwohi saved a ball from going out of bounds before ultimately setting up Iseminger for the final kill.
“We really worked on our serving the last couple days as a focus, and that came out tonight, did well,” Hoglund said. “We stepped up our blocking a little bit, got a lot more hands on some balls, so proud of them for executing what we worked on.”
As for the players, fully replacing what Eichert & Co. brought on and off the court will not happen overnight, but through two games, the Vikings feel they’ll be better off than most expected. Congdon specifically shouted out Wilson and Lewis as players stepping up in new roles.
“I honestly didn’t expect us to be this strong because a lot of people doubted us,” Congdon said. “We’re doing so good this season so far.”
