Mariners and Royals in epic battle

In an afternoon contest, the Royals and Mariners were back in action.  It can be debated that the momentum the Royals had last night was carried forward into this afternoon's match.  With the Royals winning the first two sets of the afternoon 25-20 and 25-23, it would appear that the Royals were able to continue were they left off the night before. 

The funny thing about momentum, it can be stopped in its tracks and can switch sides instantly. That's exactly what occured. With a two set lead and the match appearing to be in hand for the Royals, the hometown Mariners put a halt to that. They themselves built up some momentum of their own as they battled back to take the third and fourth sets 25-17, 25-22.  This tied the match at two and set up a much anticipated fifth and final set of the afternoon.

In the fifth set, the pendulum swung back to the Royals as they closed out the set 15-11 to take the match 3-2 in hard fought battle.

"Saturday was a different animal for us. We made some lineup changes again and despite moving to a 2-0 lead in the match never really found rythym offensively or defensively. This was heightened by a lack of real emotional engagement as well." stated Royals head coach Hudson. "We hadn't planned on playing Scott Devlin but by the time the 4th set came around I felt we need a boost in both emotion and leadership. Scott was outstanding in both regards. Despite not making a huge statistical impact he was definitely the driving force behind our 5 set win."