Wolverines Put Out Blazers
5-Set Win Knocks Timberline out of Tournament
There is no rest for the weary as less than 11 hours after leaving the arena playing two grueling five game matches, the Wolverines were back at it taking on the #7 ranked Timberline Blazers in a loser out contest. Win this match and you take home a trophy. Lose and you get on the bus home.
Bellevue, not Timberline, looked the fresher squad as the jumped out to a 5-1 lead. Back to back Knapp aces stretched the score to 10-4. Knapp later crashed into the padded back wall to save the ball and the point. Chen-Mallouk finished game one off, 25-20.
Bellevue’s serving had Timberline struggling to receive and get their offense going in game one. In game two, Bellevue couldn’t solve the Blazer’s block. Behind New Mexico State bound, Julianna Salanoa, THS took the lead early stretching it out to 13-18 before BHS came roaring back. A Weber Kill made it 19-20. This was in the middle of a 7-0 run the featured many Timberline errors. A Blazer time out came at 23-20. This is when Salanoa took over winning the next five points as Timberline steals away game two, 23-25.
A Weber kill started off game three and after back to back Knapp aces put BHS up 5-3, they would never relinquish the lead. Although THS came back late, Witham tipped it home and game 3 went to the Blue, 25-22.
Game four was all Timberline early. Bellevue crawled back and after Knapp dug up a Solanoa monster spike, Khuu teed up Weber for the kill and the score was 22-24. Unfortunately, the ref called BHS for a rotation error on the last point and, for the fifth straight match; we were going to game five.
Both teams needed this game to keep the season alive and bring home some hardware for the trophy case. Witham and Keenan got kills to go up 3-1. Witham and Huard go back to back to go up 5-3. Huard got another to make it 7-3. After THS closed it to 7-6, the Wolverine pride and determination took over. Flying all over the court, Bellevue wasn’t giving this up easy. Chen-Mallouk got the kill to go up 8-6. The Blazers made a couple of errors before Huard painted the sideline with and ace. Huard goes short with the next one that had THS scrambling for another ace. Chen-Mallouk showed Salanoa that she has some middle game to be reckoned with as she blocked the hit home. Bellevue would roll out to a 15-7 win saving us the game five drama, but bringing home a state trophy for the effort.
