It had been a while, but for the first time since Sept. 16, the players on the Mercer Island volleyball team found themselves playing from behind.

Meeting the Lakeside Lions in the Sea-King 3A district volleyball tournament final on Saturday, the Islanders ran into their stiffest competition since suffering their first loss of the season nearly two months ago. In dominant fashion, the Lions defeated Mercer Island 25-16, 12-25, 25-17, 25-11 at Lakeside High School to win the district crown. The Islanders earned the second seed out of the district tournament going into next weekend’s state volleyball championships.

The loss marked the third-straight year that Lakeside (18-3) has defeated Mercer Island (19-2) at the Sea-King tournament.

Prior to Saturday’s match, the Islanders had not dropped a set of volleyball during the postseason and had only lost two sets since falling to Bellarmine Prep on Sept. 16. But on Saturday, the Lions looked very much the aggressor from the outset. Mercer Island coach Susan Rindlaub noticed her team appeared daunted.

“We came out mentally very timid. The whole team looked scared in the first game,” Rindlaub said. “I think that we hadn’t played a team this strong since Bellarmine Prep way back in September. As hard as we prepare, it’s tough when we’re beating most teams 3-0 and dominating a lot of teams. It’s hard to get them the game experience to be able to handle it.”

The Islanders managed to turn things around in the second set, a convincing 25-12 win, and appeared to be in control during the third after claiming a 15-10 advantage. But the Lions closed out on a 15-2 run which included nine straight kills to end the frame. In the fourth and final set, Lakeside pulled away with a 14-3 stretch to close out the match.

After the game, Rindlaub’s message to her players was that “the good news is that our season isn’t over.”

“This is the one time that we can lose and still accomplish our biggest goal. We’re still going to state. Losing doesn’t feel good, but at least we know that we have more chances,” Rindlaub said.

“I could foresee us having to play Lakeside again at state. It’s good that we experienced it and we experienced that we can play with them. The second game, we destroyed them. We just have to believe in ourselves and stay consistent.”

The 3A state volleyball championships will take place Nov. 11-12 at the Toyota Center in Kennewick.