Radiers pluck the Eagles for the first time since 2009

The last time Thomas Jefferson High School beat Federal Way High School on the volleyball court was back when “Love Story,” “Boom Boom Pow” and “Poker Face” were at the top of the music charts.

If that sounds like a while ago, that is because it was.

Starting in 2009, and 13 matches later, the Thomas Jefferson Raiders finally defeated the Eagles 3-1 on Sept. 11 at Federal Way High School. For Head Coach Francis Tanielu, who is in her sixth year as a Raider coach, beating Federal Way is special.

“Don’t underestimate us, just because we are TJ,” Tanielu said.

Senior Anelia Fatuesi felt some relief beating a rival, the likes of Federal Way: “To us it means a lot. That is our rival. So any win against them, we are always going to push through.”

The season did not get off to a great start for the Raiders. In its second game, Thomas Jefferson lost in straight sets to Kent-Meridian. The Royals swept the Raiders last season in their two matches.

“We came in with a lot of energy a lot of power and show them what we got,” Fatuesi said.

It took some resilience and a little bit of trust to move on from that tough season-opening loss.

“The biggest thing we focused on this week was trust. Them trusting each other and the system,” said Tanielu.

That trust was put to the test right from the start as Federal Way and the Raiders went back and forth in the first set with the Eagles edging Thomas Jefferson and taking the first set, 25-23.

The message was a simple one: “Fight. If you want it, take it,” Tanielu said.

In set two, Federal Way started out even quicker, jumping out to a seven point lead twice in the first half of the set. But the Raiders relied on that trust and some solid play from junior Suai Paaga to overcome that steep deficit.

“She is awesome. She is a very quiet leader, but she performs exceptionally (well),” Tanielu said.

Thomas Jefferson tied the second set at 15-15 and then went on to outscore the Eagles 10-4 to win 25-19.

“We had the same energy, fight and courage as the first set. But we kept pushing. We still fought through all of it,” Fatuesi said.

Federal Way was coming off a crushing defeat in their first game in a five setter to Todd Beamer, and it looked like that thought crept back in their mind after the Raiders won the second set. In the third, Thomas Jefferson was in charge the whole way. After an early lead was cut to just two points 10-8, the Raiders went on to stretch the lead to as much as eight later and won the third 25-15.

At this point, with the Raiders up 2-1 on the Eagles, it seemed that the fate of the match was decided already before it was complete. The Raiders had so much momentum building up to the fourth set, it seemed inevitable, but Federal Way didn’t go down without a fight.

The two sides were within two points of each other all the way to 16-14, advantage Raiders. Thomas Jefferson then expanded the lead to 20-15. The Eagles battled back to eventually tie the game at 22-22, where Federal Way ran out of gas and Thomas Jefferson would win it on an ace from Paaga — the game’s unofficial MVP.

“I love this group. It took a lot of power and effort to get to where we are right now,” Fatuesi said.

A win like this can do a lot for a program that hasn’t seen much success in the past few years, going 9-41 over the last four seasons since coming out of the pandemic. But for this Raider team, they are planning to use this win for the future.

“The biggest thing is taking that momentum and pushing (forward),” Tanielu said.

“It shows we got that toughness and that power in us. To have this at the beginning of the year and to be able to push through it is good to see,” said the senior captain Fatuesi.