With the regular season winding down, Wednesday’s matchup between the Meadowdale Mavericks and Shorecrest Scots looked to be key in helping determine berths to the upcoming postseason 3A District 1 Volleyball Tournament in November.
Unfortunately for the Mavericks, Wednesday turned out to be “one of those nights,” said Coach Machen Shrum.
The Mavs, victors in four of their previous five Wesco League encounters, couldn’t put together another winning effort and fell to the Scots 3-1 (25-23, 25-11, 9-25, 25-15) at Shorecrest High School.
Shrum knew her squad didn’t play their best but couldn’t narrow down the reason for the setback.
“I don’t know what it was in all honesty,” she said. “I don’t know what it was.”
“Sometimes you get those nights where just about everybody is struggling and that seemed to be the night tonight,” Shrum continued. “It didn’t seem to matter what combination we put in there. It was just a hard night.”
The Mavs jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first set only to see Shorecrest take a 16-14 advantage later on. Meadowdale closed to within one point on two occasions (22-21 and 24-23) but failed to stop the Scots from taking the set.
Shorecrest easily captured the second set 25-11 before the Mavs led the entire way through third set, winning it 25-9.
The Scots came back and dominated the fourth set 25-15 to win the match 3-1.
Shrum did find one bright spot in the otherwise lackluster performance by her squad. “Eliose (Gabu) was strong in the middle,” she said. “She’s been awesome the past six or seven matches. She was hitting well tonight; we just weren’t able to get the ball to her enough.”
Meadowdale is one of six teams battling for the final five spots in the district tournament that starts with play-in games on Nov. 7. Shrum is confident that her team will set aside Wednesday’s loss for their final stretch of three regular season matches.
“Better days are ahead,” she concluded
In other Meadowdale sports results, the pair of Ben Fahey and Chase Harmon finished third in doubles’ competition at the 3A Wesco League South Conference Boys Tennis Tournament played at Jackson High School.
Prep Volleyball: Meadowdale at Shorecrest, Oct. 23
Shorecrest 3 – Meadowdale 1 (25-23, 25-11, 9-25, 25-15)
Records: Meadowdale 5-6 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 5-7 overall; Shorecrest 6-5 in 2A/3A Wesco League, 6-6 overall
Meadowdale next match: versus Cedarcrest; Tuesday, Oct. 29; 7 p.m. at Meadowdale High School
— By Doug Petrowski
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