By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

A season cannot be judged by the end.
Sometimes it has to be worth something more, like for the Highline Pirates volleyball team.
They made it to the West Central District 3 Volleyball Tournament for the first time in a long time, having taken place at Franklin Pierce and Washington high schools in Tacoma last weekend, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 7-8.

The Pirates lost their first match of the Class 2A tournament to the Liberty Patriots of Issaquah in three sets, 10-25, 9-25, 17-25. They lost their second match to the Sequim Wolves, 18-25, 4-25, 17-25, to end it's district play and season.

But don't look at the play at district, or the short stay. Look at the way the season ended up being at districts and that's getting somewhere good the Pirates have not gotten to in at least four years.
"It's the first time we've made it to districts in years," said Pirates head coach Mary Legate. "They didn't know about districts. The seniors were, like, 'We made it to districts.' They didn't know we had made it."
One of the seniors, and a captain on the team, Joslynn Luidebina, a 5-5, good-leaping outside hitter, spoke of her team and her time as a Pirate volleyball player.

"It's been a good experience all four years," said Luidebina. "It was fun."
The matches were not fun, score-wise or win-wise at district, but the girls didn't care. It was noticeable that they were happy just to be there. And they played well enough against the Patriots in their first match of districts that the Liberty coach, in the beginning portion of the third game, got up from her seat and threw her pen behind her in disgust.

Well, yeah, there was a reason for that. The Pirates were playing tough with a team that ended up, a day later, on Saturday, playing in the championship match, losing that one to North Kitsap.
The first two games were not so bad either as, at times, there were a lot of rallies going on between the Pirates and the Patriots. It's just that the Patriots got the points.

Liberty led the third set,10-6, but, that score there says that the Pirates weren't getting blown out. And that was about the time the Patriots' coach flung her pen.

The Pirates just stayed fairly close after that, as Liberty took a 12-6 lead before Luidebina registered a kill to make it 12-7. Then junior Jasmyn Dickerson, following a Patriot "kill" point, nailed the ball over the net without a return from the foe, giving her a kill and cutting the lead of the Patriots to 13-8.

"They were a good team," said Legate. "But it was good play. Our defense was amazing. They served pretty hard and played all-around good ball. They were a quick, tall team with hard servers."
That pretty much explains the talent, not to mention the height, of Liberty, with three girls over 6-0 while the Pirates' tallest girl, who did a good job in this game, was Tiara Tupua, a 5-10 sophomore.

So points were traded back-and-forth following Dickerson's kill point for her team that brought the Pirates within five points of the Patriots. The score changed closely pretty much the rest of the third set to 14-8, 14-9, 15-9, 16-9, 16-10, 17-10, 18-10, 18-11, 18-12, 18-13, 19-13, 20-13, 21-13, 21-14 and 21-15.
The last two points, up to this point in the game, the 14th and 15th points scored by the Pirates, were scored by Luidebina, who racked home a kill and an ace serve, respectively.

And, at this juncture of the match and the Pirates' playing neck and neck with a tournament favorite, like the Patriots were going in, it's a wonder that the pen wasn't thrown a second time by the Liberty coach.
The Pirates were, basically, trading points with the foe, from that 13-8 score until the end. In fact, if one does the math, they just about exactly traded points, with the Patriots having made the score a six-point difference, thus far in the match instead of the five-point difference earlier.

The Pirates were just having fun competing against the Patriots, and, not caring about the mistakes they made so long as they were having fun out there and improving.

And that they did, improving, laughing, smiling, more and more, even as the third set wore on and their knowing their season together was about to come to a close.

"We don't care about messing up as long as we have fun on the court," said Luidebina. 'We're all close. We have a good relationship."

So that's what matters. The sport of a game is just that, sport, but, relationships and learning of things like teamwork and cooperation and friendship, those things, are the by-product of sports. Those things can last a lifetime, and, certainly, prepare one well for life after sports.

So, from there, in the third game, the Patriots scored the next point, making it 22-15, on a tap over that Blessing Faletogo, a sophomore, just missed blocking at the net. And the Pirates' competitive, fun spirit continued, with their getting the next point, from sophomore Blessing Faletogo's kill to make it 22-16.
And, not done yet, Gilanda Kovac and Samantha Faletogo both jumped high, timing a Liberty player's swat of the ball perfectly and blocking it. That effort by those two young ladies helped knock Liberty's lead back down to a five-point difference again at 22-17.

"It was fun, good competitive, high rallies, lots of hits," said Legate.
And, then, the fun was done, as Liberty scored the next three points to end the match.
Compared to other teams in the district, Legate said that Liberty was very good.
"Very strong," said Legate. "Right up there, way up there, like one or two."