Bellevue wins 3A KingCo crown over Liberty

Published 8:24 am Tuesday, November 11, 2025

There haven’t been many times where Liberty High School volleyball Head Coach Shea O’Brien has been at a loss for words after a match. But a 3-1 loss to Bellevue in the KingCo championship on Nov. 8 at Sammamish left O’Brien searching for answers.

Liberty has high aspirations this season, especially as a team that has placed so high in the state tournament the past two years. But the team that showed up on Saturday ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the Bellevue Wolverines.

In terms of eye opening matches or a wake-up call, this was it for Liberty. “I hope it’s eye opening, I hope it is very humbling. We talked after the Curtis game and us losing to Curtis by a ton actually helped us and humbled us,” O’Brien said.

Bellevue, outside of the second set, dominated the Patriots. Their average margin of victory in the three sets they won was 11 in sets one, three and four. Liberty reached the 20 point mark just one time in the entire four sets; 25-13, 24-26, 25-17, 25-12.

Set two was really the only bright spot for the Patriots, a set which Liberty led by six early on, and seemed to show they were figuring things out after losing the first set 25-13. Liberty never gave up the lead in the second set, but was tied four times with Bellevue after leading 18-14. Set two came to a close through extra points, 26-24.

“We looked more like ourselves. We were actually hitting the ball. I think we got tentative. They are a good defensive team. So it’s tough when they keep digging you and keep hitting and hitting. We were getting kills and getting blocks,” O’Brien said.

It just appeared that Bellevue was ready to go from point one and Liberty was late arriving. Bellevue’s Kaitlyn Nguyen and Juleah Leapai were on another level and it seemed that any ball sent over by the Wolverines found the hardwood. Liberty could not find any momentum consistently throughout the match. “It was just a bad night to have a bad night, that’s what it felt like. Nothing was really going for us, it was tough,” O’Brien said.

The Patriots were given the fourth seed and will be in a winner-to-state opportunity against either Bishop Blanchet or Franklin. “We are a naturally confident group. The same thing happened last year. Bellevue beat us in the KingCo championship, we ended up getting second in districts and fifth in state and even beat West Seattle in state, who we lost to in districts. I think it’s more mental with Bellevue than anything. I don’t think physically they are a better team than us. I think we just couldn’t figure it out,” O’Brien said.