by Ed Shepherd
Sports Correspondent

Evergreen came out slow to start its match against the Fife Trojans, and, never quite corraled any significant momentum in losing in three straight sets of its 2nd round game, with the first round game a win over Sammamish in three sets, so, still a state chance for the Wolverines in the double elimination 2A West Central District 3 Volleyball Tournament going on a Franklin Pierce and Washington high schools Friday and Saturday.
"It wasn't pretty, but we won in three sets over Sammamish," said Bethany Tate, Wolverines head coach.
Set scores against Sammamish were 25-21, 25-23, and, 26-24. In that game, senior captain Mailey Falotogo recorded eight kills and three blocks. Maria Martinez, a senior, registered six kills against the Totems, a Bellevue area school. And, Cecilia Vu collected 16 assists, showing that the ball was moving around well for a couple girls to get in on the kill points for the Wolverines.

So, that win means the Wolverines played Saturday at 12:45 p.m. at Franklin Pierce High School. Win that one, and, the Wolverines need to win one more to qualify for state. That's impressive, really, that the Wolverines are this close.

Faletogo's been on the Wolverines for four years now and it's never qualified for districts before. And, now, there, Faletogo and her teammates won a game, too.

But, that nice thought could have proved fatal to the mindset of these young ladies, and, their chances of beating Fife in its 2nd round game.

Just never got untracked in game one of the match versus the Trojans, trailing, 6-1, and, later, 21-9, and, final score was 25-12.

"Fife's a pretty good team," said Tate. "They totally took us the first game."First set was an eye-opener."
It was somewhat of an awe experience in the first game that burdened the Wolverines, as Faletogo, who, besides, leading her team in kills, hit the ball a few times over the net, just not able to get the ball to hit the hardwood from the myriad of diving, strong, Trojans' player digging the ball down low, swinging arms to stop good, hard, hits into corners by the Wolverines.

"We kind of psyched ourselves out, they had too many good hits, too strong blocking, it was in our minds," said Faletogo, who recorded nine kills in the Fife match.

And, for highlights against the Trojans' statistically, that was about it, according to their coach.
"That was about it," said Tate, who did say, though, that her girls made a good run of things in game two versus the Trojans.

"I'm proud of the girls in the second game, coming back to 20 points," said Tate.

In the second game, then, the set started much like the first set for the Wolverines', which means, not good. They got behind early, 4-1, and, then, 10-7, but, then, they came back and took the lead with a nice touch hit into space by J'Vonne Hendricks, a middle blocker for her team, that gave the Wolverines a 13-12 lead over the Trojans. And, the Wolverines extended the lead over the Trojans with an ace serve from Faletogo, so, 14-12, their favor.

And, the Wolverines kept the fight in themselves going for trading points, next, so, it was 15-13. And Malatogo was helping keep her team in it with a kill point that tied things up, 16-16, shortly thereafter. And, again, a Faletogo block kept the heat on the Trojans, knotting things at 17-17.

The Wolverines' energy was, definitely, there, and, the confidence was strong as they, seemingly looked to be rallying around strong play from Faletogo. But, then, came some mishits and Faletogo even had a mishit for a Trojans point that made it 19-17 and there was no support there to stop the trouble starting.

So, as Faletogo went, so, went the Wolverines' team, and, when she experienced some trouble getting effective production no one else rallied behind her enough to put the Wolverines over the Trojans and regain momentum from a game two win.

"Unfortunately, yes, the team follows Mailey," said Tate. "If she's playing well, the team rallies around her. She's a tremendous leader."

But, sometimes, during games, Faletogo's strong play falters, struggles, and, that does a lot of damage to the team's psyche.

"We wait for her to ignite the force," said Tate. That can mean some dry times, inbetween, Faletogo igniting her team with her strong offensive play as well as Tate noted she passes the ball well, too.
And, so, as the Wolverines' weakened, the Trojans' biggest hitter, Eva Linden, a 6-1 outside hitter, who did the most damage in game one, strengthened. She slammed home the next two points, 21-17, Trojans. Then, after an out of bounds hit benefited the Wolverines, making it, 21-18, Trojans, leading, one last comeback try, too, came from Wolverines' Maria Martinez. She is the team's setter, who served up an ace for a point, cutting the Trojans' lead to 21-19. And, then, however, it was the senior, Linden, for the Trojans, along with a strong freshman, , Annika Linden, who could do kills, too, as well as set the ball up nicely for teammates to hit over for points. And, they ended out the game with kills, so, 25-20, game two final score.

And, likely, the girls with the last name, "Linden" are sisters, and. they are club players on the Trojans, who play year-round volleyball, on teams not associated with high school athletics. And, that's something that Faletogo brought up after the match.

"She was kind of everywhere," said Faletogo of Eva Linden. "She has a lot of experience. Most of the girls on that team probably play club ball. I am the only one on my team who plays outside of school."

That said, Faletogo likes her team's effort this season, which was good enough for first place among the 2A Seamount League teams, with it's 8-2 overall record, only behind undefeated 3A team, Kennedy (13-0).
"For girls who don't really know the game we were doing pretty good," said Faletogo of the match against Fife, a team that won it's SPSL 2A league with a 10-2 mark.

So, in the third game, things just did not go the way the Wolverines wanted, never getting past leading, 4-3, early, before Fife went ahead, 12-4, and never looked back en route to closing out game three with a 25-17 set win, and, that also meant match win and a sweep.

But, the positives for the Wolverines are that they went to districts for the first time in a long time and that this was only the first loss so they still have a chance of making it into the state tournament.
"Evergreen at districts has always been done on the first day," said Faletogo, who speaks of her freshman, sophomore, and, junior seasons, anyway, that much she knows of the recent past of the Wolverines' unsuccessful district appearances. "But, we are coming back tomorrow."

Tate says that this level of competition at districts is something that she's glad her girls get to see.
"We talked before the touranment about knowing things like kills that work in our league won't work here," said Tate. "But, every time we play a team who is good, we get better."

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