T-birds fly high

Published 10:22 pm Tuesday, October 18, 2011

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE — Through the first 12 points of Tuesday’s night volleyball match between Shorewood and Mountlake Terrace, the two teams had a played to a tie.

Then, fueled by an 8-0 run, the Thunderbirds dominated the next two sets and used a third set comeback to defeat the Hawks 3-0, set scores were 25-15, 25-16 and 25-23. With the win, the Thunderbirds (5-5 league, 6-6 overall) now need just one victory to assure themselves a berth in the district tournament.

“Tonight was huge for us,” Shorewood coach Jennifer Chartrand said.

Mountlake Terrace (4-5, 5-6) remains alive for a postseason berth if it can beat Lynnwood next week and the Thunderbirds lose to Shorecrest.

The Thunderbirds were a team playing with a purpose on Tuesday. Once they got things going in the first set, they never looked back.

“I think our passing holds us in the game,” Chartrand said. “We played some great defense tonight, our libero (Dana Brindle) was reading the ball really well. So when she passes and stays strong for us, we can run our offense.”

Brindle finished the match with 20 digs.

In the second set, the Thunderbirds picked up right where they left off in the first, scoring 13 of the first 16 points en route to another set win.

“I think the girls were just determined to come out tonight and play strong,” Chartrand said. “We’ve had a couple of little rocky matches and they knew they needed to come out and win tonight and they came out and set their minds to it and started really strong.”

Chartrand said the fast start was important for a team that can struggle without one.

“When we have a slow start, we have a hard time recovering Chartrand said. “So they knew it was important to start strong and capitalize on that.”

But the Hawks weren’t going to go down without a fight, jumping out to a 17-10 lead in the third set before the T’birds even knew what hit them.

“Our serve receive kind of fell apart,” Chartrand said. “When our passing goes down it’s hard for us to continue to run a strong offense. And so I think we were struggling in passing in the third set a little bit.”

Shorewood, however, knew the importance of finishing off its sweep and not letting Mountlake Terrace back into the match. The Thunderbirds scored 15 of the matches final 21 points to earn the win.

“It was huge for us,” Chartrand said. “Terrace is a huge momentum team and when they can flip the momentum I would never want to go into a fourth game with them because the momentum would carry them. And my team, coming back and recovering from that sometimes is hard for us.”

Casey Hynes finished the match with 16 assists, Leah Lechtenberg had eight kills and Soleil Boileau had 16 digs for Mountlake Terrace.