TUMWATER — After losing the first set on Wednesday, Tumwater coach Molly Cichosz had a simple message to her team.
“It was mostly about confidence,” Cichosz said. "They’re a little bit younger of a team, and they don’t quite know how good they are … Just giving them confidence and just pedal to the medal.”
The Thunderbirds didn’t take long to rebound from their slow start, as they took control of the match and went on to win 22-25, 25-11, 25-15, 25-10.
“To bounce back and bring that confidence back, it’s really impressive,” Cichosz said. “I’m impressed with them and happy with how they’re doing.”
Cichosz attributed the slow start to a mix of mental and physical fatigue, as Wednesday was the T-Birds’ (4-0) third straight gameday.
“You come to gameday and you're all excited,” Cichosz said. “But when you have three in a row, it takes some of that adrenaline away, and you have to come up with that yourself, which is hard.”
Cichosz also pointed out that without time to adjust and fix mistakes in practice between games, some of the same issues persist throughout the week, and that happened in a first set filled with self-inflicted wounds.
In Set 2, the T-Birds’ hitters started connecting at a high rate, and their servers also started connecting with lethal efficiency. The Thunderbirds went on to tally 17 aces in the match, and they logged a 91.7 percent success rate on their serves.
McKayla Clary, who led the team with seven, delivered four straight aces early in the third set, a run that forced an R.A. Long timeout.
“It’s a huge momentum boost,” Cichosz said. “It just gets them down, gets us up, and it’s a big momentum change.”
Tumwater easily put the match away in the fourth set, taking a 16-5 lead to force a timeout before ending the game on a 9-5 run.
In addition to leading the team in aces, Clary logged 12 kills and 10 digs, while Milani Palizzi recorded 11 digs, Lalie Betschart led the team with 15 digs, and Bailey Broeker dished out 23 assists while adding eight digs, five aces, and five assists. Tove Hugus had three aces and Betschart had two.
The Thunderbirds have a few returners from last year’s run to state with some key experience, but about half the team is getting their first big chunk of varsity experience.
“It’s just a really solid group,” Cichosz said of her squad. “They’ve really stepped up. They’re doing a great job off the court and on the court. They just want to get better and want to win.”
Tumwater will get some much needed rest, as they have just one game in the next two weeks. They’ll face Olympia on the road on Thursday, Sept. 19, before heading to Kelso to face the Hilanders on the following Thursday, Sept. 26.
The next time Tumwater is at home will be for its league opener, a matchup against W.F. West on Tuesday, Oct. 1.
