BATTLE MOUNTAIN - The Battle Mountain High School varsity volleyball team had three matches last week against the Elko Indians, Lowry Buckaroos and Silver Stage Nighthawks. The Lady Longhorns were only able to pull out one victory in the three.
Battle Mountain made the trip to Elko on Tuesday, Oct. 4, and was defeated 25-18, 25-9 and 25-13. BMHS head coach Sondra Torgerson said the first game of the match the Longhorns did OK, but after that it was pretty dismal.
Battle Mountain (0-4 Ruby Mountain League, 12-14 overall) started out well in game one, but with the score 7-4 the Lady Longhorns allowed the Indians' libero to score eight service points in a row. That took the Lady Longhorns mentally out of the match and they never were able to turn it around the rest of the night.
Kalin Nelson and Amanda Wallock had six and four digs, respectively, for Battle Mountain. Gabby Cruz added 12 digs, Pooja Bhakta 17 assists and nine digs, Samantha Samuelson six digs and five kills and Abbie Mikelson nine digs, eight kills and four blocks. Hannah Hale finished with four kills, and Kelsey Kroll had two kills, two digs and one block.
Battle Mountain welcomed Lowry to its home court this past Thursday, with the Lady Bucks winning 25-17, 25-16, 20-25 and 25-11. The Lady Longhorns trailed 4-0 in the first game before they were able to return a ball.
"We were making terrible ball handling errors on simple plays," Torgerson said. "We caught up, but when the score turned 19-17 Lowry's No. 4 (Heather McElvain) served the next six points to end the game.
The second game got away from Battle Mountain when Lowry's Betsy Guerrero served five consecutive points to make it 11-3, and the Lady Longhorns were unable to change the outcome of that game.
However, Battle Mountain started out the third game strong and when Kalin Nelson served six points in a row, it gave the Lady Longhorns a demanding lead. Trailing 22-12, the Buckaroos chipped away at the lead, but Battle Mountain hung on to win 25-20.
After switching courts it all fell apart again. With Lowry leading 10-7, the Lady Bucks' Angie Herrera served eight points in a row to break the game open and seal the win for Lowry.
McKenzie Huddleston had three digs, Kelsey Kroll four assists, eight kills and three blocks and Mikelson 10 blocks, 11 assists and seven digs. Samuelson added four digs and three kills, Bhakta 18 assists, 13 digs and two kills, Nelson four kills, three assists and two aces and Wallock four digs and two aces.
The Lady Longhorns loaded the bus early Saturday morning to travel to Silver Springs to play the Nighthawks. Battle Mountain was able to take early leads in all the games and more importantly they were able to hold on and continue to stay focused to win all three. The Lady Longhorns swept the three games 25-17, 25-9 and 25-13.
"It had been almost a month since our last victory so this was an important mental victory for us," Torgerson said.
Wallock had one kill and one dig, Nelson three digs and two kills and Cruz two aces and two digs. Pooja Bhakta added 20 assists, eight digs, one block and one ace, and Samuelson three digs, two kills, one block and one ace. Mikelson had 15 kills, three blocks, three digs and two aces, Hale five kills and four blocks and Kelsey Kroll one block, one ace, three kills and three assists. Daisy Hernandez had five assists and one ace, Shelby Kroll one dig, Rebekah Russell one kill and Maleni Cruz one dig.
This week is Homecoming week for all the Longhorns. Battle Mountain hosts Spring Creek Saturday at 1 p.m. and Pershing County Tuesday at 6 p.m.
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