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The Bowie High School volleyball team had been nearly perfect this season, winning all 16 of its matches and sweeping 15 of those 16 opponents prior to Wednesday's 4A state semifinal against Magruder High.

But Wednesday evening at the University of Maryland's Ritchie Coliseum, the Bulldogs found out what it was like to be on the other end of the spectrum. Bowie's season ended with a 25-21, 25-8, 25-17 loss to Magruder, as the Colonels finished off the Bulldogs in just 75 minutes.

Bowie (16-1) made it a regular habit to sweep county foes this season. The Bulldogs dropped only one game through its first 16 matches, but the senior-laden Bulldogs were outgunned on Wednesday by another unbeaten squad. The Colonels (24-0) got ample production from setter Xiaoyi Li (34 assists) and outside hitters Michelle Fowle (13 kills) and Molly Hirrlinger (10 kills). Tori Kenno contributed seven aces — six of which came in one run — as Magruder advanced to Saturday's 4A state final at Ritchie Coliseum.

Bowie seniors Siri Ngundam (11 kills), setter Heather Garnto (18 assists) and libero Brittany Griffith (10 digs) kept the Bulldogs in contention in the first and third games, but the middle game got away from them early. Bowie battled back from a 20-10 deficit in the first game to get within 22-20 before senior Tiffany Eller committed a rare service error.

"I think if we were playing that game to 50, we would have won," said Bowie coach Eric LeMaster. "Even when they fell way behind, they never gave up. They fought hard all the way to the end. They stayed together and they continued to play together through the end of the match. I'm very proud of them."

Magruder also raced to an early lead in the second game, but this time the Bulldogs could not close the gap. In fact, Kenno stole the show. Described by coach Scott Zanni as the team's "hidden gem," Kenno whistled nine consecutive jump serves at Bowie during the second game. Six of them went for aces, and the Colonels vaulted to a commanding 20-6 lead en route to a lopsided victory.

The Bulldogs showed resiliency in the last game, which was closer than the score indicated. Two-thirds of the points were scored on side-outs by the defensive team. Bowie appeared to tie the score at 15-15 on a hitting error by Brittany Skrutski (7 kills). But the chair judge ruled that the ball deflected off a Bowie defender and gave the point and a 16-14 lead to Magruder.

Another Kenno ace made it 17-14. The Bulldogs responded with a side-out, but Bowie went through seven servers in a row at one stretch and eight of its last 10 without getting a single point. A kill by Hirrlinger off a set by Li made it 18-15. Hirrlinger then connected on six consecutive service winners to bring the Colonels to match point.

Garnto set Jehan Assata for a point to temporarily prolong the match. Yaje Ngundam responded with an ace, but Poole handled Ngundam's next serve and passed the ball to Li, who delivered a set to Fowle, who ended the match with a kill.

"I don't think that we could have played much better than we did," Garnto said. "I thought we passed the ball well, we hit well and we served really well. We just came up against a better team. We don't face that type of competition in the county. I thought we had a great season."

"This team won the first county volleyball championship for Bowie, we won the region and we made it to states," LeMaster said. "I really could not be any prouder of this group of girls. They worked hard every day in practice and they played hard every match. Magruder has a great team. You can't take anything away from what they did. But I still could not be any prouder of my girls."