Thomas Jefferson dug down deep on defense and intensified its offense to overcome a 2-0 deficit in games and outlast crosstown rival and home team Decatur 18-25, 14-25, 25-13, 25-19 and 15-12 in two and one half hours of scintillating South Puget Sound League North Division volleyball Thursday.

Rachelle Eckert knocked down the kill that finally ended the five-game struggle that featured both teams exuding energetic effort in a dynamic struggle for supremacy.

Each squad refused to buckle in the deciding fifth game, matching each other point for point until Jefferson led 8-7. Two Decatur mistakes sandwiched around Eckert's twisting two handed shot enlarged the Raider margin to 11-7. Christina Sessoms and Nicole Mareko responded to bring Decatur within 11-9. Eckert's rippling shot and Whitney Iwasaki's serving ace helped Jefferson to a 14-9 lead. Mareko's kill ignited the Gators to a three-point run before Eckert rang down the curtain on the night's action.

"Decatur played well and came out strong at us," exclaimed Jefferson head coach Robin McNett. "We were slow off the draw. Once we warmed up and played like we should we were all right. It came down to heart and who wanted it more. They did what they knew they could do. This was a good vote of confidence for them. I'm proud."

After jousting evenly early in the first game, Decatur turned an 8-7 deficit into a 14-7 lead with strong passing and defense against a seemingly dazed and mistake prone Jefferson squad. The Gators still held a seven-point advantage before the Raiders ran off three consecutive points to draw within 18-14. Decatur's Dee Tanielu blazed a service ace to ignite a four-point Gator surge that TJ answered with a 3-0 run as the TJ lead stood at 22-17. From that point, the Gators hung on for the win.

Strong serving by Mindy O'Meara and a stout backline defense fired the Gators forward to leads of 7-2 and 13-4 to put the Raiders on their heels in the second game. Continually matching short Jefferson scoring runs with longer scoring surges of its own Decatur controlled the flow until the end of the game.

"We are a lot better than that," stated TJ's Lauren Stark. "We got caught on our heels and adjusted. Our intensity got higher."

Seemingly swallowed in the swamp of the Gator volleyball court, the Raiders found a bright, new dawn in the third game. Jefferson exploded like a lit powder keg to lead 7-0 and 14-1. Like turnabout intruders in hostile territory, the Jefferson players delivered tidal waves of destruction from all angles, dominating every phase of the game even as Decatur committed numerous, costly errors.

Jefferson led by margins ranging from four to six points throughout the fourth game, but the gallant Gators drew within 15-13 after Lauren Westberg's point scoring shot. Tanielu later scored to tie the game at 18-18.

A Decatur miss hit, Katelyn Nugent's kill and Morgan Green's instinctive reaction hit keyed a 4-0 Jefferson surge and the Raiders led 22-18 en route to the 25-19 victory to force the final, fiery drama of game five.

"It was pretty amazing," declared Jefferson's Kendra Ansotigue. "I thought we kind of started slow, but we ended doing what we do - playing our game."

"We were hitting stronger to get our lead," said Decatur head coach Mandy O'Brien. "Then they started getting stronger and really took it to us in the third game. We're getting better with our young team. This was our best game so far. By the end of the season, we'll probably get some strong wins."

O'Brien praised sophomore Christina Sessoms for her blocking and hitting while freshman outside hitter Tanielu also played a strong game. Senior Iwasaki passed well and played good defense.

For Jefferson, Nyssa Hovde had three aces and eight digs. Katelyn Nugent and Rachelle Eckert blasted six kills each as Tonya Johnson made four kills. Lauren Stark collected seven digs.