Lady Woverines start run through bracket with win over Payette

During my six years of reporting on the Lady Wolverine volleyball program, I have been honored to witness some great play, some painful slumps and some inspiring comebacks and upsets.  
 The Lady Wolverines have a history of being able to come back from a low seed or a rough season and prove to their fans, classmates and community that there is nothing stronger than the heart of a Wolverine.
 The Lady Wolverines had to earn their way into the actual bracket play of the SRV District Volleyball Tournament, as their regular season record placed them in fourth place. This placing pitted them against the Payette Pirates for a play-in game against the fourth and fifth seeds in the league.
 With two regular season wins against the Pirates, the Wolverines should have had no difficulties progressing into the tournament. They jumped out to a quick 8-3 lead in the first set. Everyone on the court was contributing to the success and a kill by Grace Soulen, placed libero Macey Buescher behind the service line.
 Buescher went on a serving streak, serving 5 consecutive aces, pulling ahead 13-5.  Strong play by the Wolverines kept them ahead to take the first set handily 25-14.
 With such a dominating first set, it appeared that the Wolverines would be moving into the tournament quickly. However, the Pirates came alive in the second set, and the Wolverines played like a different team from the initial set.  
 The Wolverines fell behind in the beginning of the set, trailing by as much as 5-points in the set, but Reagan Doty began serving and regained some of the deficit.  However, the Wolverines were never able to surpass the Pirates on the scoreboard, dropping the second set 17-25.
 The third set appeared to be one of redemption, with the Wolverines jumping to a hasty 5-1 lead with strong serving by Jade Simonson and Soulen, but the lead was short-lived and poor coverage and bad passes allowed the Pirates to catch up at the 6-6 mark.  
 Another surge by the Wolverines, fueled by kills from Doty, Rylie Warner and Soulen and an ace serve by Doty, pulled them back into the lead 13-8.  Yet, once again, hitting errors let the Pirates overtake the Wolverines with a 6-0 scoring run.  
 The Wolverines continued to work, but the play lacked the earlier energy, allowing the Pirates to take the third set 22-25.
 The Wolverines had their backs against the wall, and really needed to rally in the fourth set. Unfortunately, the set again started out rough with a stretch of poor serve receive resulted in the Wolverines trailing 1-7.  A kill by Doty was the impetus to rally the Wolverines and allow them to pull within 3 points to 5-8 off another kill by Doty, a stuff block by Jasi Yraguen and Warner.  
 The Wolverines continued to stay with the Pirates but struggled to overcome the 3-point differential and the requisite 25-point milestone was quickly drawing close. Finally, Ciana Fuller placed a sneaky set to the backcourt at the 21-23 mark. Ivy Morris began serving and through a collaborative stuff block by Yraguen and Warner, an ace serve, and a kill by Doty, the Wolverines got the dramatic win 25-23.
 The fifth and final set of the match was a battle!  Trading points to the 12-12 point, an ace serve by Fuller prompted a Pirate timeout, but it was to no avail. A Pirate error and another ace by Fuller ended the set 15-12 and the match 3-2.