By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

PARKLAND--Foster barked pretty loudly to begin its match against Washington, getting ahead, 20-14, in the first set.

But there was one problem, no bite, as the Patriots came back to win that first game and subsequently the match by scores of 24-26, 28-30, 25-18, 18-25, to eliminate the Bulldogs from the West Central District 3 2A Volleyball Tournament at Washington High School in Parkland Friday.

"We battled, missed some opportunities," said Buldogs' coach Brandi Travess. "First two games ahead and should have been able to put them away and win the match."

The Bulldogs began the match, in game one, battling, as, both they and the Patriots exchanged points via good serves from players on their teams for a 10-10 tie.

Then Washington took an 11-10 lead before Foster came back to take a 20-14 lead as the Washington coach called a timeout in frustration. Meanwhile, Foster celebrated as the momentum was in their favor, needing only five points to win in a game where every serve gets a team a point. Incidentally, the scoring system in high school volleyball, now, is unlike several years ago where teams only got points when they served.

So victory looked hopeful and things looked good for the Bulldogs against Washington, for the Tukwila area school to extend its stay at districts another day and maybe make state. This was all a possibility despite the Bulldogs having lost their first match of the day in a three-game sweep against the Steilacoom Sentinels played earlier that day.

But winning that would not be the case, as the Patriots, with a home crowd backing them, helping, rallied in that game to outscore the Bulldogs, 12-4, the rest of the way.

So what just went awry? The last two points of the game were an out of bounds hit and a mis-controlled serve of the Patriots, for one thing. There were good points, too, for the Bulldogs in game one, with junior outside hitter Raylene Gogo getting some kills in their building the lead to six points past the midpoint of the game. Plus some good serves from Tavaesina Maiava, a junior middle blocker, and Maiava nailed down a kill, too. And junior Maria Ibanez, the libero who only plays on the back row, passed well to set up teammates like Gogo, Maiva, and also Vi Dinh, a sophomore, who did well as well hitting the ball over.
"Just errors, nerves," said Travess. "I think, we got distracted looking at the scoreboard."

And more of the same came for the Bulldogs in the second game as, again, the Bulldogs built a sizable lead in the latter stages of game two, up, 19-16, on a Dinh tip into space, a Dinh kill and a Gogo kill. But back came the Patriots, taking advantage of a double-hit error, and a serve that became an ace when it was not controlled with a hit that kept the ball in bounds for the Bulldogs. Foster still led, 19-18, but, momentum was deeply in jeopardy, and, some good rallies for the next few points got the score to 24-23, Washington, leading. Then, a good decision by Dinh when she allowed a ball that looked like it might be headed out of bounds to go out.

And Dinh decided well. The ball went just by the side red line for the Bulldogs to knot the score, 24-24. Then this game was far from over as 25 points won't win a game. One has to win by two points, if both teams score 24. So it was back and forth scoring in this pivotal game two from that point, in this crucial game that either tied things up, 1-1, or puts the Bulldogs in trouble, down two games to none.
And the Bulldogs kept battling back in game two, from one-point down, two times, 25-26, 26-27, before taking the lead, 28-27. That's when the Patriots overcame a nice Dinh dive for the ball, digging it up into the air nicely for a teammate to hit over, as the Patriots controlled that hit, slamming it back over for a kill by its 6-1 hitter, tough all match, sophomore Runa Pitoitua. She gave her team a one point lead. And another diving effort by Bulldogs' sophomore Aolani Medrano went for naught and, the loss for game two was had, 30-28, on a serve's return hit too close to the net for a hitter to put the ball over.
"I felt like our communication was low," said Maiava. "We had good hustle but we were over-thinking too much."

A nice win came for the Bulldogs next, however, in game three, backed largely by five Gogo kills and that 25-18 win looked like it could be a launching pad for a nice comeback to win games four and five for the Bulldogs.

And game four was a battle as the Patriots took a 11-9 lead and kept that lead, just barely, through its good hits, a good sum from Pitoitua hit over, and, blocks by her, too. All the while the Bulldogs got points a variety of ways, some from Maiava serving, and, Medrano serving, too. Then, at that point, Maiava, moving to the front row, got a kill to make it 11-10. And the Patriots' other main player senior, Seine Faalilea, got a hit over, and then Pitoitua.

A block of a Gogo kill attempt made Washington build its lead to 13-10 in the Bulldogs' do-or-die game.
And the Bulldogs kept fighting hard, not wanting to die, with good energy and hustle to balls, and kills over from Dinh and Maiava to cut Washington's lead to 13-12. Then a Pitoitua kill made it 14-12, Washington before a tip point by Maiava made it a one-point game again.

But the Patriots kept scoring, then, after some fierce back-and-forth rallies, and a couple double-hit errors, unfortunately, mixed in, that ended up being Patriots' points, too, as the Tacoma school moved to a 19-13 lead. And they never looked back in clinching the match, 25-18.

"When we have a tight game, with a lot of rallies and scoring, we have to play clean and manage our errors," said Travess. "That is something to do with confidence, and some is with our being a young team."
The Bulldogs only have two seniors, neither are starters, so this team is very young, with the majority of players, sophomores and juniors. So that's encouraging for the future.

"We work on thinking confidently so we can play confidently," said Travess.

And, the players played with confidence at times, with a good spurt of it getting them a game four win, too, which is always saying something when district competition is faced.

"Raylene had a ton of kills, and was getting a lot of blocks," said Travess of Gogo, who recorded 12 kills for the match, and four blocks. "Tavaesina got a lot of assists, making some plays on defense, and, making good decisions on tight balls. And our libero, Maria, played really well on defense and she was solid with leadership."

The Steilacoom match that opened districts for the Bulldogs was just plain tough.

"They were a lot taller than we were and very well-rounded," said Travess. "We, actually, had a couple stretches of good points in the first two games, were neck-and-neck with them, but their libero served, like, eight straight points, and we made some errors, too, in those games and we lost in three games."
Scores against Steilacoom for the Bulldogs were 15-25, 19-25, 13-25.