SEQUIM — If there was a volleyball equivalent to baseball’s five-tool player, Sequim’s Tayler Breckenridge fits the bill.
The 5-foot-11 senior filled up stat sheets for the Wolves all season long, piling up kills, doing the dirty work to dig balls out for her teammates, providing perfect passes and serving at a sensational clip.
Sequim’s game recaps from the season tended to read like this: “Tayler Breckenridge had her usual stat-heavy match with 23 kills, 19 digs and 20 for 20 serving with three aces.”
“Tayler is solid all the way around,” Sequim coach Jennie Webber-Heilman said.
“She played club volleyball, she came to open gyms, played in middle school and in high school. She put in a lot of extra time playing volleyball and it paid off for her. She was our best player.”
Others took notice.
Breckenridge was voted to the All-Olympic League 2A Division first-team by league coaches and earned honorable mention in All-State voting by the Washington State Volleyball Coaches Association.
For all these accomplishments, Breckenridge is the All-Peninsula Volleyball MVP as determined by the Peninsula Daily News sports staff.
“She had a really good attitude and that’s not necessarily a trait amongst the better players on other teams,” Webber-Heilman said. “I didn’t have to worry about any of our players, but Tayler always had a good attitude.
“Volleyball was fun for her. She got the job done out on the court, but also liked it when everybody was having fun because she’s just a fun person, always enthusiastic. A nice person to be around and the other kids looked up to her. So besides being well-rounded on the volleyball court, she was fun to spend time with off the court.”
Webber-Heilman said Breckenridge’s strength was being an “all-around player.”
“Some kids are really good defensively, others excel offensively, but Tayler could do both. She was an all-around player. One of our best defensive players as a middle back, she could cover lots of ground, read what the other team was doing and hit really well out of the front row and at the back row.
And for her to be able to be a consistent hitter out of the back row really added to our offense. Setters could go to her and she could get a good swing on it from the back.”
“And she was a very strong passer. You can’t ask for more than a strong hitter and a great passer, they aren’t always one and the same.
Sometimes the passing gets overlooked in favor of the hitting but she was just as capable.”
And Webber-Heilman appreciated the support Tayler received from her parents, Dina and Dave, as well as older sister Megan, herself a former All-Peninsula Volleyball MVP (2015-16), who now plays soccer at the Evergreen State College.
“Her family were really great supporters of her,” Webber-Heilman said. “Her parents were at every match and her sister came back to support her at a number of games.”
They’ll be able to continue that support next season when Tayler joins the roster of the Pierce College volleyball team.
“She has a verbal commitment to play at Pierce College,” Webber-Heilman said. “That’s a good fit for the family and Tayler. They know there’s a position for her, and with how good her hands are, she may end up playing as a right-side hitter.”
2018 All-Peninsula Volleyball Team
MVP: Tayler Breckenridge, Sr., Sequim
Setters: Kalli Wiker, So., Sequim; Julia Lausche, Sr., Forks; Hannah Olson, Sr., Clallam Bay.
Middle Blockers: Rian Peters, Jr., Forks; Jayla Julmist, So., Sequim
Outside Hitters: Miriam Wonderly, Sr., Clallam Bay; Britney Dean, Sr., Forks; Eliahna Kilmer, Jr., Forks; Renee Woods, Sr., Chimacum; Oceanna Aguirre, Fr., Neah Bay;
Opposite Hitters: Aeverie Politika, Port Angeles; Pearl Munn, Sr., Quilcene
Libero/Defensive Specialist: Isabelle Dennis, Sr., Sequim; Grace Buzzell, Soph., Neah Bay; Myah Rondeau, Jr., Forks
