PORTLAND, Ore. - A spirited comeback from Evergreen State handed Cascade a 5 set conference loss at the Thunderdome tonight. Trailing 2 sets to none, the Geoducks stormed back to win the next three and earn their first win of the year 16-25, 20-25, 28-26, 27-25, 15-13.
It was night and day for the Thunderbirds (3-6, 1-4 CCC) as they won sets 1 and 2 handily and seemingly had winning momentum. Meagan Stanley had 7 kills and no errors up to that point, while Evergreen had comitted 13 errors as a team.
Evergreen (1-8, 1-4 CCC) found new life after fighting off match point in set three and winning 28-26.
Set 4 was more of the same, with Cascade unable to put away the scrappy Greeners and again fell in extra points 27-25.
Evergreen jumped out to an insurmountable 10-5 lead in the deciding set thanks to timely hitting and several T-Bird errors. Cascade made it interesting by climbing back to within 13-14, but a Madeline Blevins kill sealed the win for Evergreen.
"Momentum is a funny thing," said coach Nels Norquist. "We started making a lot of unforced errors after the first 2 sets. Service errors were a real problem for us, and our serve reception went away as the match wore on. When you lose that momentum, it's hard to get it back."
Natalie Forgan was a force for Cascade, spiking home a season high 23 kills. Stanley added 12 kills and 12 digs.
Evergreen had 3 players in double figure kills: Madeline Blevins (13), Candace Gleaves (12), and Jessica Dubois (10).
Cascade will try to rebound versus Northwest tomorrow night, while Evergreen heads to Warner Pacific.