Varsity - Bellevue vs Redmond 10-21-25

Bellevue 2-0 Redmond
25th min 1-0 Paris (Aanya) from FK
42nd min Katelyn mega-save
73rd min 2-0 Ava (Hailee)

As some of you know, before I started coaching at BHS our family lived in London for several years. We had an amazing time and to this day, my youngest daughter can rattle off random facts about Queen Victoria that she learned in first grade. While in the UK I became a fan of the BBC show "Quite Interesting" (or QI) which is a panel show of witty comedians who are quizzed about random facts researched around a weekly theme. For example, in one of the early season shows ("Hocus Pocus"), the theme was Magic and Illusion and a young Daniel Radcliffe was one of the rotating panelists. One of the facts was introduced with the riddle "What is blue and sounds like a whale?". The answer is "quail" and the underlying fact is the "blue quail" is a species of bird native to sub-saharan Africa that has a deep voiced call that mimics a much larger animal or predator. Cool fact. (Yeah...it's an acquired taste, and very nerdy).   

So for this recap, I'm going to celebrate a few facts.

Fact #1. We have a great goalkeeper.
On very slick turf that made possession play challenging and good shot-stopping a tricky task, our sophomore goalkeeper made two fantastic saves that preserved our shutout in a 2-0 win over the visiting Redmond Mustangs. We opened the scoring in the 25th minute with a pair of rebounded shots, the first from Aanya with hard shot against the Redmond wall, and then Aanya hit the rebound towards goal...where Paris redirected the shot at the goalkeeper, who blocked, and Paris finished her rebound with a goal from short range. 1-0 Bellevue. Then Katelyn happened. First with only a minute left in the half, the Remond left winger got free inside the box with only Katelyn to beat, hard shot, reaction save. No goal. Halftime 1-0. Then two minutes into the second half, the dangerous Redmond midfielder picked up the slops from 2-3 mis-clearances, and hit a drive from 25 yards that I instinctively said "that's in" to the A/R who was standing next to me on the sidelines...but Kately took two confident steps towards her back post and launched her body upwards, pushing the ball just over the crossbar with perfect technique. Simply breath-taking goalkeeping (and something I know the GK sorority has been working on with Coach Imad). The near goals woke us up a bit and we saw the game out, but not before Hailee got her first varsity point with an excellent cut-back cross from the right wing that Ava smashed home at the back post. 2-0 Bellevue. Final Score. Final stats weren't glittering, but enough to get the job done. 13/4 shots, and 0/4 corners with 48/52 possession deficit Bellevue/Redmond.   

Fact #2. For the 5th consecutive season Bellevue enters the 3A tournament as the #1 seed. Due to a scheduling conflict with football, our Kingco Semi-Final has been moved from Thursday, October 30th to Saturday, November 1st at 5:30 at Bellevue Stadium. Our opponent will be the winner of Mercer Island vs. Sammamish. In the previous two meetings this season, MI has beaten Sammamish 9-0 and 6-1...so...with all due respect to Sammamish, it's likely we'll play the Islanders in our semi-final. It's the first meeting between our long-time rivals in over two years and I'm sure both sides will be eager and ready to renew our rivalry (in the most respectful sportsmanlike way, of course).  If we win that game, the Kingco Final will be on Tuesday, Nov 4th at 7pm at Bellevue Stadium. If you are a glutton for staring at tournament brackets and trying to figure out every possible permutation (guilty), or if you just want to know when we might be competing for a State Title so you can plan your November family calendar, then here is our future in the links below.  We won't know our seeding for the State Tournament until we qualify, and then the Seeding Committee meets on the morning of Sunday, Nov 9th with the final brackets being released later that day:

3A Kingco Tournament

3A State Tournament

Fact #3. Thursday vs. Liberty is the last regular season home game for our seniors. Despite the fact that our playoff fate is already determined, there are lots of reasons for us to bring our best effort to Bellevue Stadium tomorrow.  1) Winning is way more fun.  2) We play to honor our seniors (Emerson, Kendall, Nora, & Raina) 3) Our seeding in state will be influenced by our final RPI ranking, and losing games, even meaningless games, will negatively impact our RPI ranking. The top four seeds in the State Tournament get to host the Round of 16/quarter-final pod at their home stadium. This is a big deal. The alternative is getting a seeding that requires travel somewhere else (Seattle, Spokane, Gig Harbor, Vancouver, etc.). We would rather play at home. So I'm looking forward to Senior-Night against Liberty tomorrow for all the reasons above. But especially #2. 

And that's a fact.