By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Mount Rainier gave it a good go against a team with a much better record in Todd Beamer on Tuesday.

The Lady Rams scored a third game victory off the Titans, but that was too little, too late, in a momentum sense, anyway, as the Rams went on to lose the match in four sets, 11-25, 17-25, 25-22, 16-25, in South Puget Sound League North Division volleyball action inside the Todd Beamer gymnasium in Federal Way.

The Rams dropped to 3-6 in the South Puget Sound League North Division while the Titans improved to 8-1.

Mount Rainier coach Tom Wells put the blame not on players, per se, but on passing, which, as a whole, the team did not do a very good job at a lot of the time.

"Bad passing," said Wells, "It's a spot we have to work on."

In this match, the Rams were definitely in contention to win each set, except for maybe the first one, as that was a 14-point difference in a game where the Rams just never seemed to get a foothold of momentum. But, in the other sets, not including the one the Rams did win, they were, pretty much, right there competing with a one-loss team.

The third game was set in place to spin momentum back to the Rams, down 2-0 in sets, after a respectable game two loss that had in it an 18-14 Titans lead at the closest point.

But in game three, the Rams volleyed back and forth all game through it, as the Titans did move to an 11-7 advantage before the Rams spiked themselves back into contention, with some good hits from juniors Megan Houston, Ally Hardy and Mariya Manuel, getting a slam down the throats of the Titans, too, for a point, making the game tied, 17-17.

The Titans' next three points came not from errors and not hitting errors over the net, but an assortment of not controlling Titans' serves via initial digs and bumps of the ball, which goes under the heading of 'passing.'

"We had a hard time getting control of the ball," said Rams captain, senior, setter, Sara Westhoff.

Westhoff is the Ram's set-up player as her position states, so what she does is push (hit) the ball up into the air with her touch of it before middle and outside hitters on the team, like Hardy, Houston and Manuel, hit it over the net. Sounds simple, really, the passing of the ball, for set-up to Westhoff, but it's not. There's a lot of timing involved and making sure Westhoff is within proximity of the pass, etc.

For the match, Westhoff's setter opposite her, on the Titans, McKenna Milholland, recorded 41 assists, or, sets, to teammates. On the other side of the net, Westhoff tallied only 14 assists. And, Coach Wells said Westhoff was ready to go, ready to set, assist, do her thing. But, the others didn't do their thing quite so well.

"It's all a matter of getting passes to Sara," said Wells.

So, in game three, continuing with it, the Rams didn't pass well for three straight points, and, that led to the Titans sophomore breaking the tie, taking a 20-17 lead. The Rams rallied back, however, to tie things up, 21-21, with Hardy and Houston getting kills in that four-point burst, along with a Titans out of bounds serve and a block by, Cloe DeBiase.

And, the Rams Hardy did an ace serve, and, to finish things off for the Rams in game three, the disconnect of pass to setter, Westhoff, was not there for the final three points as their hitters were set up nicely by Westhoff prior to nice passes to start things off. So, 25-22, Rams, in game three, giving them new life, almost, momentum, certainly, in their corner, a bit more.

"We had some momentum," said Wells.

But, then came game four, and with momentum on the Rams' side of the court, playing much better than a .300 winning percentage team, against a .800 team, the Rams rallied from down, 5-1, early to behind one point, 6-5. But, those passing errors really cropped up in this one, with just no answers for hard serves by the Titans to control the ball, or, just once it was hit over a time or two, starting good rallies, the Rams then didn't control a fairly routine ball hit to them. And, that happened for the next several points, in a row, for the Titans' lead to balloon.
"Things like that, unforced errors, can change momentum," said Wells. "That's hard when we had a little momentum."

And, passing and serve-control woes will spell trouble in a hurry, and, did in this one, as the Titans went on to an 11-6 lead in game four, and, though, the Rams recovered to a 15-12 deficit in this do-or-die set for themselves, the Titans found a way to regain control. The Titans went up, 19-13, and, never were threatened after that.

"If we are having trouble passing, we won't win as many points," said Westhoff.

And, Westhoff was, definitely, not having trouble with making bad passes as she don't touch the ball for the first touch after the other team hits the ball over the net. That's her teammates' jobs.

"Sara did alright," said Wells. "She gets tired running around after those bad passes. She does exceptionally well, considering the passes she gets."

Manuel was standing next to Westhoff after the game and Manuel, a front line hitter, doesn't pass the ball, much.

"I think I passed the ball to Sara once," said Manuel, as that question was asked her to see if she was the culprit, so to speak.

"And, it was a great pass," said Westhoff, putting the clamps on anyone thinking Manuel's passing was suspect in this game.

So, there is blame, but it's not on Westhoff and it's not on Manuel, one can guess, but is there some finger-pointing for others to clean up their passing? Wells didn't name names, but, yes, of course, there is some pointing of the digits to certain players' direction, based on what's been said.

And, though, not to put all the blame on the passing shoulders, there are Rams' other areas that need to become better barriers of protections, too, like blocking.

"We only had two blocks in the match," said Wells. "That was our downfall, too. Couldn't block their tall girls."

So passing hurt, and, mixed in with its deficiency, was blocking as the Titans did record several points from quick, little, taps up near the net for the Beamer 6-foot plus girls to step in there and hurtle themselves straight upward and kill that ball over the net. That was consistent in all four games, but proof that the Rams can overcome that kind of thing is that they won one of those games, despite some kills from the Titans laced in between the Rams better passing in that game.
Manuel explained, too, that the first match against the Titans played earlier this season was a slamfest and not in the Rams' favor one bit. They lost that one three games to none.

"We did better this time playing them than last time," said Manuel. "Coach Tom had us work on things that were not good. We got stuffed at the net pretty much every time last time against them."

And, although the Rams did only have two blocks that resulted in actual points, they did post-up at the net, with arms raised high well as far as giving their team second chance opportunities to get a point a kill way instead of a block way. So that leads to promise in the future for the Rams, too, in addition to getting one game from the Titans in this one with good passing and blocking.

"We know that we have that big blocker (Megan Houston) in the middle for us," said Manuel of the team's tallest player at 6-2. "So we need to strategically play to our advantage and hit the ball around her over the net, using that strength."

Also, in this game, the Rams were without one of their better hitters, Emily Lincoln.

"She gave blood and she could have fainted if she went in there, so she is one of our middle hitters and we had to move Megan and Marissa O'Keefe around on the court," said Wells.

So, Lincoln's presence back in there should help things play to the Rams' advantage too in future matches.

The good news of this loss is that the Rams have beaten a couple of the Kent schools this season in the SPSL North, and Federal Way, all teams ahead of them in the standings, and now just need to take care of business and beat Decatur at home on Thursday so a loss at Tahoma Monday, a team with a 7-2 record, would be OK. The Rams then would still make the SPSL playoffs that start at Kent Meridian or Mount Rainier on Oct. 30.

Then, it's on to districts if one thing happens in the tournament.
"We have to win one game," said Wells.

The Rams can lose the first game, too, in the tourney and still get into districts.

"We would just have a lower seed it we lose the first and win the second," said Wells. "So better to win the first."