BY GERARDO BOLONG
Contributing Writer
Mt. Rainier High School girls volleyball gave a good account of itself for two sets before wearing down in the third set in a 3-0 North Puget Sound League 4A Cascade Division loss to visiting Kentwood on Tues., Oct. 17, in Des Moines.
The Conks rose to 2-3 league and 7-5 overall.
Despite falling to 0-5 in division, the junior dominated Rams have won all their non league matches to have an overall 5-5 record.
"This is a tough league," said first-year MRHS head coach Patrick Taitano, who is working to change the athlete's thinking. "There is an improvement from last year because we've been competitive in all our matches, including (league leading) Kennedy. The girls worked hard and are doing some good. There are just some phases where we give up a bunch of points."
Kentwood relied upon its hitting power and more consistency to gradually build up a14-8 first set lead before MR rallied behind big hits from middle blocker Malaysiah Banuelos, who was prominent throughout the night and finished with 13 kills. Mt. Rainier climbed within 14-11, but KW cleared away to lead by six again.
Refusing to fold, the Rams closed within three points twice including 23-20 before dropping the set 25-20.
Mt. Rainier had a golden opportunity to win the second set after powering to five consecutive points and an 8-2 lead behind the solid serving of junior Anna Hardy. She would close out the match with five aces.
Led by the outside hitting of Haylee Kent, the Conks fought back as the teams engaged in four ties, the last at 12-all. Kent was prominent again in the Kentwood surge to lead 17-12.
MR continued to battle and trailed only 17-15 and 20-18, but Kentwood strung a 3-0 scoring run en route to a 25-20 win.
Chalyse Fuiamono and other team members joined Kent to settle the third set for Kentwood early.
Hardy's serving led to three consecutive MR points as the Rams trailed only 10-7.
At this point, the Conks bombed away like World War II planes and also capitalized on Ram errors to fire away an 18-7 dominance and later led by 12 points before closing out the 25-15 match ending set win.
Freshman Marissa Banuelos earned 13 digs for the continually learning Ram netters.
