KENNEWICK — Near the end of a nerve-fraying quarterfinal match against Fife, Danielle Gilchrist and Shawna Smith lay sprawled on the rubber floor after diving and stretching, trying to keep their state title hopes alive.

It was a glaring symbol of how the Mark Morris volleyball team left its collective heart on the Toyota Center court Friday during a five-game loss that would have sent the Monarchs to the semifinals — and guaranteed them a trophy from the Class 2A state tournament.

Instead, the Monarchs will have to win one more match Saturday to have a chance to bring home hardware.

“It sucks losing, obviously. It’s my senior year and if we would have won that game, we would have for sure gotten a trophy,” Gilchrist said. “But we still have a chance (today). If we win that game, we’re playing for fourth or seventh. It’s nice to know we have another shot, but it would have been nice to get it done tonight.”

Mark Morris opened the tourney with a four-game victory over Anacortes before falling to Fife, while R.A. Long lost in four games to West Valley of Spokane in its first match Friday.

The Monarchs play West Valley at 3:30 p.m., with the winner advancing to the match to decide fourth and seventh place. Since RAL only played one match Friday, the Lumberjills will have to win two matches to have a chance for a trophy.

The Jills play Grandview at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the winner playing at noon. The survivor of that match plays at 5 p.m. for a chance at fifth or eighth place.

Fife edged Mark Morris 25-23, 22-25, 23-25, 25-20, 15-11 in a marathon match. Fife moved on to play Archbishop Murphy in the semifinals at 2 p.m. today.

“Everyone, especially the seniors, wanted to come here and do better than we did last year. So everyone was really playing their hearts out — everyone, including the underclassmen,” Gilchrist said.

Fife’s Jessica Miller, a 6-foot-3 junior, was dominant and tough for the Monarchs to stop throughout the match, as she ended the first game on a monster smash.

The Monarchs rallied to win the next two games behind strong serving from Alesha Schulz, solid blocking and front-row play from McKinzi Williams, smart decisions by Gilchrist and Shantelle Savage, great back-row play by libero Jill Isaacson and strong hitting by Smith.

Fife closed within 23-22 in Game 3, but a clutch kill by Smith made it 24-22 for Mark Morris. After the Trojans scored on a blocked hit that went out of bounds, the Monarchs finished the game on a smart play by Savage when she pushed the ball deep into the open court for the final point.

With a 2-1 lead, the Monarchs needed to win just one game to finish off Fife. But the Trojans stormed back in Game 4 to win by five points. Game 5 turned out to be a dogfight, similar to the first four.

MM grabbed a 6-2 lead after a pair of Williams kills and a lethal serve by Gilchrist. Again, Fife came back and after a trio of ties, and took the lead at 12-11. MM coach Lisa Verage took a timeout to stop the Trojans’ momentum, but they scored the final three points to finish off the Monarchs.

“We’ve had a lot of battles with Fife over the years. Last year, we knocked them out going into the trophy round. This year, it was their turn,” Verage said. “I told the girls if we would’ve battled the rest of the night, it would have kept going back and forth, point for point, game for game.”

Gilchrist played well with 32 assists, 16 digs, five kills and eight service points. Other top players for the Monarchs included Savage (27 digs, 13 kills), Schulz (10 points, five aces, 14 digs), Williams (10 kills, two stuff blocks), Isaacson (35 digs, nine points) and Lindsay Cappa (10 digs).

Schulz set a school record for service aces in the Monarchs’ first match against Anacortes. She eclipsed the former mark of 78 with five against Anacortes, then added five more against Fife to bring her new record total to 84.

Against Anacortes, Mark Morris came out fired up and built a healthy 23-14 after a block by Ellie Hultgren and Taylor Trevino. Then the tides changed and the Seahawks showed some life by rattling off 11 unanswered points to stun the Monarchs 25-23 in Game 1.

“It was a little bit of a wake-up call in the first game,” Verage said. “We were ahead 23-15 and it brought back a little bit of visions of us versus Tumwater at district, and what we were able to do to them. We just struggled in that serve receive at that point.”

Game 2 was close the entire match but Mark Morris was in danger of going down 2-0 in games as Anacortes led 23-21. But with the help of some well-placed tips and some miscues by the Seahawks, the Monarchs pulled it out, 26-24.

The Monarchs used the adrenaline built up from a crucial win in Game 2 to cruise in the final two games to cap a 3-1 victory over Anacortes.

Besides great defense in the back row by Schulz, she also had five service aces.

Gilchrist, a four-year veteran of the state tournament, led the Monarchs with 32 assists, eight kills and three aces. Savage recorded 11 kills and Shawna Smith added nine.

Jills lose to West Valley

R.A. Long’s inexperience at the state tournament showed after the Lumberjills came storming out of the gate with a 25-10 win in Game 1, before losing three straight in a 10-25, 25-12, 25-21, 25-16 loss to West Valley of Spokane.

“This is the first time these girls have been to state, so they came out on an adrenaline rush and they performed awesome,” RAL coach Jennifer Hefley said. “We worked together. We played good. The next game, the other team was fired-up mad and they wanted to up their game. So we had to work a little bit harder. We made a few more mistakes.”

Hannah Johnson, RAL’s junior setter, paced the Jills with 19 assists, four kills, 12 service points and eight digs. Rachel Morrow had eight kills and five blocks, Katie Sarysz posted nine kills and four blocks, Bekah Spurgeon had 11 digs and Kylee McGeary served eight points.

After the first game victory, West Valley’s strong-hitting team proved to be too much for the Jills as outside hitter Bailey Wold and middle hitter Shaniqua Nilles, both 6-footers, took over.

Overall, we lost the match but I’m proud of the girls,” Hefley said. “They played well. We made too many mistakes in a row and didn’t bounce back quick enough.”