TENINO — The Tenino volleyball team had one good run it but couldn’t pull much more than that, falling in four sets to Hoquiam in a 1A Evergreen League showdown, 22-25, 25-16, 25-17, 25-17 on Tuesday.
“They came out on fire with the gameplan, and executed,” Tenino coach Shauna Carpenter said. “And then the wheels fell off. We have a really hard time keeping the intensity through three games. We go one intense game, and then we’ll slack off.”
Hoquiam jumped out to an 18-13 lead in the first set, forcing Carpenter to take a timeout, but out of the break, the Beavers (8-7, 3-4 1A Evergreen) rattled off a 12-4 run to come back and take it, trading in spikes and tips for deep two-handed push shots into the back corner of the court.
In the second set, though, there wouldn’t be another comeback. Hoquiam worked out to a three-point lead after a back-and-forth start, then finished on a 10-4 run.
The next two sets got out of hand quicker, with the Grizzlies opening up a 19-9 lead in the third and a 13-6 advantage in the fourth.
“They just haven’t quite got the intensity to fully execute for a whole game,” Carpenter said. “They do really great coming out fresh, but once they start to get physically tired, the mental game goes too, and they just don’t think about it. They’re like, ‘Okay, kill the ball,’ versus, ‘I’ve got to be strategic about where this goes.”
Brooke Bratton led the offense with 10 kills and also had 25 digs, while Kylee Petrich had seven kills and Kiyah Goodwin added five. Kate Burkhardt stuffed the statsheet with 23 digs, five assists, three kills, three blocks and three aces.
In a match full of long rallies without many terminating spikes, digs were plentiful; Briana Asay led the Beavers with 27, while in the back row, Jaeleen Woodward had 14 and Natalie Davis posted 11.
“Jaeleen and Natalie are really no-fear diggers,” Carpenter said. “They don’t care how hard you hit at them or whether you tip or not, they’re going to go everywhere and anywhere.”
Already assured of a postseason spot, Tenino will close out the regular season at home Thursday against Eatonville.
