For about an hour on Tuesday night it looked like Auburn might upset Tahoma at home.

Not only would it have cast a pall on the Bears’ Senior Night, a Trojans victory would have stopped a six game South Puget Sound League North Division winning streak.

Instead, after Auburn went up 2-0, Tahoma came out after the break and took the match back, winning 3-2 behind the hitting of senior Morgan Murrey and sophomore Rachelle Frets.

After losing game one 25-22 and game two 25-17, Tahoma coach Sally Eager told her team, “let’s let this break … be to our advantage for once.”

“I said, ‘It’s your Senior Night. You guys have to go out and take control,'” Eager said of her mid-match speech.

She explained to them that Auburn wasn’t going to roll over and let them win just because it was Senior Night and that they were “going to have go out there and take it.”

Which is exactly what the Bears did.

After coming out flat in the first two games, Tahoma was ready to play, battling back and forth early in the third game.

“We definitely needed to pick up our energy,” Murrey said. “We weren’t going to give up so easily. We focused on passing the ball. We knew where they were hitting so just were playing smart.”

With the Trojans up 10-5 in game three, the switch flipped for the Bears, and they scored seven of the next eight points put up on the board to go up 13-10 on a kill by Frets, who racked up 25 in the match.

And then Auburn looked like it was going to take the match back in the fourth game, racing out to a 7-3 lead thanks in part to three straight aces from Brooke Good, then building it to 10-4.

But Tahoma closed the gap to 10-9 when it scored five straight points thanks to a tip in and a kill by Frets, an ace by Murrey and a Lauren Hamburg tip over the net.

“(Hamburg) tracks the ball,” Eager said. “Court sense, it’s something you can’t teach.”

Auburn pushed it back out to 14-9 but it started making mistakes with kill attempts not finding their mark while Tahoma’s net play and hitting ramped up.

Good missed a pair of hits for Auburn while Murrey put away a kill then Amber Thompson followed that up with an ace to put Tahoma up 17-14.

“(Thompson) came in cold off the bench,” Eager said. “She just did a beautiful job (serving and defensively).”

From there the Bears were able to hold off the Trojans to force a decisive game five.

Eager said the girls lost their balance for a while but found it again as all of her seniors contributed to the win.

“Natalie Davis was passing, she was playing defense,” Eager said. “We scored points when she was in the back row. She’s one of our defensive specialists.”

Senior co-captain Tayler Schroeder, the team’s libero, had 16 digs while Molly Meeks contributed at the net defensively on blocks as did Justine Ferry, who tallied three.

The final game was like watching a see-saw as the lead changed hands a number of times. Auburn had its final lead at 13-12 when a Tahoma block went out.

Eager called a time out and Frets, with strong setting from junior Miranda Grieser who collected 45 assists as well as a pair of blocks in the match, put away three straight kills to seal the win for Tahoma.

Tahoma didn’t look back from there and won game three 25-23.

With the win, Tahoma has likely put away the SPSL North Division title, the first time the Bears will be able to hang that banner as it has never won the division since joining the league.

Murrey, who was thrilled her team won on Senior Night and is one step closer to an undefeated league season, is excited about Tahoma’s prospects heading into the playoffs with one match remaining Thursday against Mount Rainier.

“When I came in as a freshman, we were a really good team,” Murrey said. “So, it’s been a while. Really coming out strong and having good energy (will be key in the postseason).”

This is the second consecutive five match win for Tahoma, which beat Kentridge 3-2 on Oct. 13, after sweeps of Auburn Riverside and Thomas Jefferson the week before.

Tahoma is now 7-0 in SPSL North play and hasn’t lost since Sept. 23 when it dropped a match 3-2 against Graham-Kapowsin which was ranked no. 3 at the time. The Bears improved to 9-4 overall and travels to take on the Rams of Mount Rainier on Thursday.

From there the Bears will play in the sub-district tournament at Todd Beamer High on Oct. 30.