ARLINGTON — Ironically, the Arlington volleyball team learned Oct. 12 that every point counts — even when being swept.

The Eagles’ players were off the court already, waiting to switch sides with the thought that it had the first game in hand, 25-22. But the Eagles were recalled after the winning point was overturned with the score 24-23.

“That was huge,” said Eagles coach Cari Britt. “It totally killed the momentum, but there’s nothing you can do about it.”

And in a match where the first two games saw seven lead changes apiece and were decided by the minimum four points combined, momentum was crucial. Nevertheless, the Eagles lost 3-0 (30-28, 25-23, 25-10) to the Bruins of Cascade, who rallied behind a second chance in game one to win 30-28.

Despite the close nature of the first two games, it was normal to see one team up by as many as seven points. Rallies were common practice in game one, such as the 9-3 run to tie the score at 13-13 and 5-0 run to tie it again at 19-19. When the Eagles were focused and hitting well, the points came in bunches, mostly due to the hitting of Karissa Scarth and Kenzie Jorgenson.

Those two also were given the job of keeping a taller Cascade team in check. A task that they were able to accomplish by blocking or getting a piece of nearly every hit in the first two games.

“We had to scramble on defense, but much more in the third game than the first two,” Britt said.

But a couple of hitting and serving mistakes during the extra points ended up finishing Arlington off.

In the second game, neither team owned a lead of more than three points. Sloppy at times for both sides, neither one was able to capitalize off of the other’s mistakes.

“We didn’t play to our potential tonight, it’s as simple as that,” Britt said. “We had a lot of mental errors and we just couldn’t focus on finishing out a game.”

Arlington had a 23-22 lead thanks to an ace by Courtney Van Dyke, before allowing three straight points to lose 25-23.

The third game saw the difference in confidence after winning the first two close games, and losing them. The Bruins’ hitting loosened up and the Eagles weren’t able to stop them, leaving the middle an open ground for kills. Arlington led 8-7, but Cascade scored 15 consecutive points before eventually winning 25-10.

Leading the Eagles were Megan Abdo with 29 assists, and Kristen Wright had 18 digs.

Also, Britt praised the play of swingman Venessa Van Eyk, who has played in the last six varsity games and making just a single error.

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