As the Mountlake Terrace High School volleyball team squared off for their first match of the season there were nerves and excitement from players and spectators alike. A surprise was the amount of fans that attended the match,

“I loved our fans,” senior Lilianne Nguyen mentioned following the tough game.  Unfortunately though, the first match of the season didn’t come together for the Hawks as they dropped the match in three straight games to Meadowdale.

The first game featured an impressive rally that showed potential for the rest of the season. The Hawks got off to a slow start against the Meadowdale Mavericks finding themselves down by five before they had even scored.

Shortly after the team found themselves trailing 16-8 in a game to 25 and things looked bleak. But something seemed to click for the Hawks as they went on an 11 -3 run to tie the game at 19. The Hawks and Mavericks then exchanged blows back and forth up to and past the standard 25 points all the way to 30.

But at that point the Hawks finally fell as Meadowdale was able to score two consecutive points to take the game 32-30.

In the second game Terrace went down quietly 25-13. Down two games to none the Hawks got off to an early lead but couldn’t maintain losing the final game 25-19. At times the team seemed to struggle with communication, something not uncommon for many teams at the opening of a season.

Although the team was disappointed with the loss the team showed strong runs where they seemed unstoppable. Justine Kelly routinely gave Madison Eich and Nicki Bouche quality sets for them to deliver hard-hitting spikes and Ali Hitchcock seemed to spend more time on the ground laying out for balls than standing upright. As the season progresses the team looks to tie up loose ends and be a competitive team throughout WesCo.