Conquering Mount Rainier became a daunting dilemma for Highline on Thursday night.

Eradication of errors and limitation of its opponents' scoring runs enabled the Mount Rainier Rams to scuttle the homestanding Highline Pirates 3-0 in a Seamount League volleyball match at Highline.

This win that avenged a previous 3-0 defeat against the Pirates brought the Rams into a deadlock with the Highline for second place at 7-2 behind unbeaten John F. Kennedy with five games remaining in the regular season.

"This was really a big game for us," exclaimed Mount Rainier head coach Bryan Harley. "We've had to make some adjustments to raise our level of play. Tonight, we decided no more lip, just action, and put it into action."

Mount Rainier scored four consecutive points on Kathleen Mulligan's serve to enlarge its 8-6 lead in game one to 12-6. Highline was still within 18-14 after Shannyn Fisher knocked down a kill, but Melissa Yapp's spinning tip shot ignited a 5-0 run that Yapp also spearheaded to draw the Rams away to 23-14 and an eventual 25-17 win.

"The girls overcame mental blocks and played solidly," observed Harley. "Strategically, we took advantage of free balls and the girls just executed well. As a whole, we eliminated errors and did not give up long runs."

In game two, Highline tried valiantly to stay competitive against a fired up and intense Mount Rainier squad that pulled out digs and controlled the action at net. Leading 12-9, the Rams resembled a gathering storm while they raged on to an 18-9 margin on the strength of Chelsea Miller and Luu Pham.

Showing some flashes of their normal level of play, the Pirates fired a broadside of points to close the gap to 19-14 with Lynette Owusu triggering the surge. After Mount Rainier scored two consecutive points, a Fisher kill intermingled with Ram mistakes revived the Pirate hopes to bring Highline within 21-18. Chelsea York tip a shot just over the net before a skimming shot off the net made the score 21-20 amidst the roar of the home crowd. Trading point for point, the squads battled until Mount Rainier held a 23-22 lead. A Pirate mishit and Pham's kill finally enabled the Rams to survive the frantic Pirate rally, 25-22.

Game three found Mount Rainier billowing away to a lead of 10-2. Highline staged another comeback to narrow the deficit to 10-7, As the game continued to develop, the Ram point sprees were more frequent and more plentiful than the Pirate scoring opportunities. On top at 21-15, Mount Rainier went on a 4-0 run to win at 25-15.

"We wanted it, played our hearts out and did what we knew we could and came out on top," explained a joyful Miller. "We just had fun and play our game to our potential more."

Mount Rainier's statistics emphasized its team play with contributions from a variety of athletes. Melissa Yapp slammed down 14 kills as part of the front line effort while Miller added 11 kills, 3 blocks, and 3 digs. Kathleen Mulligan earned 5 digs and 8 kills as Luu Phamh hit 7 kills with 4 digs. Sara Kochel's largest contribution was setting up for 36 assists.Jessi Rendon cultivated 13 digs. Helen Barakel led the Ram servers with 2 aces.

For Highline, Owusu gained 11 kills and 4 aces while teammate Fisher had 10 kills. Samantha Erben came up for 10 digs and Fisher blasted 10 kills.

"We just dig well tonight," related Pirate head coach Jason Boyd. "They (the Rams) were prepared and we just didn't play good volleyball. We're trying to be more consistent at a high playing level. We'd play well for five or six points and drop backto an ordinary level. we just seemed a little slow. We'll work hard to win the remaining games. We're still tied for second."