After falling in their first match at the 3A state tournament Friday morning, the Mercer Island volleyball team bounced back, winning three straight matches to finish seventh overall in the state tournament.

In the first match to the 3A state tournament, Mercer Island lost 3-2 to Prairie.

“I was pretty shocked when I saw the brackets,” said head coach Susan McKay of facing eventual state champions Prairie in the first round. “The team played really hard, and we staged one of the more amazing comebacks.”

The Falcons earned a 2-0 lead in the match, winning the first two games 25-19 over Mercer Island, but the Islanders battled back from a 19-10 deficit in game three to win it 25-22 and force another game. In game four, the Islanders held on to win 25-23, but were dominated 15-3 in the fifth game to fall to Prairie.

“We definitely talked a lot about life lessons and how it’s easy to play when you’re winning, but it’s harder when you’ve lost, and I thought how they responded was a great testament to the team. We talked about how to find the good in something disappointing.”

Moving into the consolation bracket, Mercer Island beat Stanwood, 3-1, Friday afternoon in 20-25, 25-22, 25-13 and 25-14 games. The Islanders moved on to play Lakeside of Seattle on Saturday morning, winning 3-0. The final scores were 25-10, 25-17 and 25-13 for the Islanders.

In the final game of the 2012 season, Mercer Island beat Seattle Prep 3-0 in 25-14, 25-21 and 25-23 games.

“If we get stuck on ending up seventh when we wanted to be first, it takes away from the season we had,” said the coach. “Overall, it was an incredible season; we beat Mount Si four times, won KingCo and districts for the first time in four years. As a team, they played so well and worked so hard.”

The team was undefeated throughout league play, winning its first regular season KingCo and district titles since 2008.

The Islanders finished with a 24-1 overall record.