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Midway through the second game of Tuesday night's volleyball match at arch-rival Bowie High School, Eleanor Roosevelt High senior outside hitter Funmi Akinyode was whistled for stepping across the center-court line while finishing a kill. For the remainder of that game she seemed to be out of sync.

The Raiders lost the second game, 25-13, tying the match at one game apiece. As Roosevelt prepared to take the floor for the third game, Akinyode got a mild pep talk from coach Eileen Lloyd and her teammates. She even did a little talking to herself. And it did the trick.

The Raiders bounced back with strong all-around play from senior Mercedes Maynard and libero Lydia Felter and long service runs from Maynard, Akinyode and Julie Houchens for a 25-19, 13-25, 25-21, 25-15 victory. The loss was Bowie's first of the season.

Roosevelt (10-0) had not lost a single game this fall until the Bulldogs rode the lofty sets of junior Heather Garnto and strong hitting from Siri Ngundam and Tessa Tolson to the lopsided victory in Tuesday's second game.

"That second game we kind of got out of our rhythm for a little while," said Roosevelt coach Eileen Lloyd, whose squad now appears well on its way to the top seed and home-court advantage for the 4A South Region playoffs. "Even Funmi might have got caught up in the intensity of the moment and just got out of rhythm. I talked to her and [assistant coach] Sharon [Howard] talked to her and [Funmi] went and talked to herself and she was fine for the next two games."

At times Akinyode was unstoppable, sending sets from Maynard, Houchens and Jenna Hogie over the Bowie blockers and into a catatonic back row that failed to react quickly to her powerful kills. On other occasions, Akinyode attacked the ball too quickly and sent it into the net or sailing out of bounds. Her serves were on target in the fourth game and she ended the match with a kill off a Maynard set.

"That second game we lost focus and I got out of rhythm for a minute," said Akinyode, who plans to major in communications or pre-med at Georgetown University or the University of Southern California. "We just helped each other out and worked together. That third game we just went out there and forgot about the second game. We played with much more heart and intensity the last two games. When we were down, Mercedes just picked us up with her enthusiasm."

Bowie (9-1) cruised to a win in the second game thanks to long service runs from Garnto, Ngundam and Tiffany Eller, good sets from Garnto and solid hitting from Ngundam and Tolson. But the Bulldogs committed far too many serve-receive errors in the third and fourth games as Lauren Craig, Brittany Griffith and Michelle Ward didn't cover enough ground to pass the ball back to Garnto effectively.

"We knew we had some holes coming in," said Bowie coach Eric LeMaster. "Now we know where they are and what we have to do to fill them. Our serving in the first, third and fourth games was not consistent and our serve-receive was not very good all night. We'll definitely be a better team the next time we see them in the postseason. After three games we were down two games to one and we were ahead on points [65-63], so we had to be doing something right."

Griffith served the Bulldogs to an early lead in the third game, but the Raiders took a 16-11 lead as a result of Bowie service errors. Griffith again gave the Bulldogs an early lead in the fourth game, but long service runs by Akinyode and Maynard eventually propelled the Raiders to an insurmountable 22-11 lead.

E-mail Ted Black at tblack@gazette.net.