By Ed Shepherd
SPORTS CORRESPONDENT

Foster brushed aside the host Tyee Totems by set scores of 25-15, 25-15, 25-13 in Seamount League volleyball action Tuesday.

Both teams are struggling in the Seamount, with the Bulldogs improving their record to 4-5 and the Totems still trying to catch up to a first victory in league play this season.

Foster coach Brandi Travess was happy with her team following Tuesday's outcome.

"For the first time in a game, we were trying to execute a new play," said Travess.

Did it work?

"We set the middle one time," said Travess. "It wasn't the prettiest, but, I asked them to try to do it and they did it. A little rough around the edges, but it was good to see them do it. We want to install many plays for them to do in games for the rest of the season, but I have a young team and it takes time. It takes convincing them to do it."

Foster, in the first two games against Tyee, won convincingly, getting ahead, 15-9, in game one and then 12-6 in game two. And, although the third game was the lowest point total for the Totems, they made their biggest comeback run of the three games in that one. However, it was from way behind in the score when the Totems rallied for several points. And that kind of rally is always going to be tough to do much positively to change a game's result.

But, in light of that fact, the Totems' coach, Hayley Schwiebold, liked what she saw from her team in game three.

"They pushed them," she said. "We've been struggling when playing from behind. They had a big deficit tonight and they didn't give up."

Foster opened up with a 4-0 lead. It then ballooned to 12-6, with players like sophomore Vi Dinh, sophomore Aolani Medrano, junior Ariana Serafica and junior Reylene Gogo getting kills, sets and blocks all to get the ball over to the Totems' side of the net.

And the lead for the Bulldogs went higher yet, to 20-7, before the Totems rallied. And anyone in this sport knows that kind of 10-plus point lead is nearly insurmountable for the losing team to come back from and win, because the two teams only play to 25 points. Plus, in Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association high school volleyball, no longer does a volleyball team only get points when they are serving. Points are recorded even when the opponent serves, which was a WIAA high school rule change several years ago.

And, so it went that the Totems were behind by 13 points and came back with six straight points, their longest stretch of scores for the match. That Totems rally cut the Bullogs' lead to 20-13 as Janice Roman, the Totems' libero, served during that time well.

But the Totems' rally was stopped at that point in game three as Romans' deft serving and good hustle plays by her Totems teammates, and herself, came to an end. Indeed, besides Roman, the Totems' Maiah Graham and Levani Laga on the front and middle rows, kept points alive in this six-point Totems comeback.

But the effort was met by Foster well. First was a nice, long, lob, hit by Serafica that the back row Totems players let drop, hoping the hit was out of bounds, but, it was not. Then Medrano registered a kill and that spike gave the Bulldogs a 22-13 lead that they would turn into a win three points later.

"We ran a new play tonight, the 'X' play," said Serafica, a junior captain on the Bulldogs team, speaking of what play was aforementioned by Travess. "It's fun trying out new plays."

Roman thought her team played well.

"I think we did well," she said. "We know its best to get the ball back into the middle so we can keep it in play. We are becoming more and more developed each game."

Roman noted two of her teammates who stood out to her in this game for not giving up and showing effort for her team throughout.

"I thought Maiah did really good, showed really good hustle," said Roman. "And, Crescencia (Terrado) did really well, learned two new positions and knew when to be aggressive and when to keep it in play."
Roman could have mentioned more teammates doing well, too, but that was all she noted quickly.

And Schwiebold noted that Roman is an important player on her team, of the many out there.

"She's our libero," said Schwiebold. "She can play only in the back row but she doesn't constitute a substitute. She is a leader for the team, a senior, very focused at practice."

This Foster season has had its ups and downs and Travess noted that her team is young already. Sshe also said that her best game played by her team was against the league's top team, Kennedy.

"It sounds kind of odd, playing against them our best game, but we played really hard that game," said Travess. "We showed up with a lot of intensity. We played hard, played tough, even with our differences. I have 4-11 girls and have D-1 scholarship players. We were trying to carry that kind of enthusiasm and effort into tonight's game, and I think we did."