South Whidbey volleyball believed its match with a two-loss Archbishop Murphy High School volleyball team was winnable. The Wildcats wouldn’t let senior night slip away from their grip on victory and first place in Cascade Conference 2A.

Archbishop Murphy won in straight sets 25-15, 25-17 and 25-18. South Whidbey struggled to put together a string of offensive points.

“It’s a hard loss and we thought we were going to do a lot better,” said South Whidbey senior Alyssa Coupe. “We can’t win them all.”

In the first two games Archbishop Murphy went on five-point runs before South Whidbey scored a point. Coupe explained the Falcons’ defense struggled communicating with one another.

South Whidbey showed flashes of offense in the third game. The Falcons scored first and went on a small run before the Wildcats took the lead, 6-5. Behind efforts from Brittany Wood and Kelsey Taylor the Falcons came back to within two points, 19-17. Archbishop Murphy pulled away though and sealed the victory on two aces from junior Hannah Linsenmayer.

“They’re expectation is to come in and win every match here,” said Archbishop Murphy head coach Jeff Curtis.

Curtis and his Wildcats are the number one seed from the south in the district playoffs.

South Whidbey plays a tiebreaker with Granite Falls on Thursday, Oct. 28 to decide between third and fourth place. Third place will play at South Whidbey High School in the district playoffs.

“We just kind of have to pull everyone together and pick everyone up,” Coupe said.