Even with Homecoming thrown in, it was business as usual for the Lowry High School volleyball team, who picked up a pair of victories over Dayton and Fernley this past weekend.
With the two wins, the Lady Bucks hit the 20-win mark for the first time since the 2006 season when they reached the semifinals of the Division I-A state championships.
In front of a packed house on Friday night, Lowry needed four sets to beat Dayton 25-20, 25-22, 14-25 and 28-26. The Dust Devils are the defending league champions and reigning state runner-up.
The two schools traded points for much of the first set, when the Lady Bucks pulled away. It was much of the same in the second set, with Lowry hanging on for the three-point victory. The Lady Bucks were looking to sweep the Dust Devils, but Dayton came out and controlled much of the third set and forced a fourth set. The 11-point loss was the second worse on the year for Lowry. Damonte Ranch beat Lowry in a set 25-12 in a preseason tournament.
The league champs did not go down with a fight, as Lowry pulled out a two-point win in the fourth set that went beyond regulation scoring.
"We knew it was going to be a tough match," said LHS coach Megan Allen. "Dayton had just beaten Truckee in four games. We always like to sweep, but I am proud of how the girls came back in the fourth set. The girls showed a lot of heart."
Lowry did not have to work as nearly as hard on Saturday afternoon in completing the Lyon County sweep with a 25-14, 25-13 and 25-14 sweep over Fernley. The Lady Bucks improved to 8-1 in the Division I-A North and 20-2 overall. Lowry is second in the league, while Elko is first.
"You could see the same intensity wasn't there, but we played well and didn't come down to Fernley," Allen said. "One of our goals was to hit consistently and we did that. That was one of our best hitting matches of the year. The girls played smart today."
It seemed everyone in the Lowry lineup wanted to get on the hitting train as Juliana Velasco, Sierra Thiede, Auri Criddle and Meg Montero had kills to give the Lady Bucks a 9-3 lead in the first set. Ashlee Barron and Montero added tips in the open floor and Madison Montero threw in a kill to keep the margin at five points at 14-9.
Fernley kept the gap at five points at 16-11, but it was all Lowry after that point. The Lady Bucks finished the set on a 9-3 run, which included an ace and kill by Madison Montero and Ashlee Barron closed out the set with a kill.
Lowry took that momentum and raced to a 9-1 advantage in the second set, which included three aces from Brooklyn Waller. The Lady Bucks continued to pull away, as Hannah Hillyer and Chelsea Herrera combined for a block and Herrera later added a tip and ace to make the score 14-4.
The Vaqueros closed the gap to 15-10 at one point, but never got any closer.
After Fernley was called for being in the net to stop the run, Hillyer followed with an ace for the Lady Bucks and Velasco followed with four kills to finish off the Vaqueros.
Despite a block by Meg Montero and an ace by Herrera in the early part of the third set, Lowry had trouble shaking off Fernley. The Vaqueros closed the gap to 14-11, forcing the Lady Bucks to take a timeout. Lowry got its wake-up call from there, going on an 11-3 run to win the match.
An ace by Barron increased the lead to 16-11 and back-to-back kills by Madison Montero and Herrera gave Lowry a 20-11 advantage. The Lady Bucks closed out the match with a kill and block by Hillyer on back-to-back plays.
"The younger girls are playing well and doing the job I asked of them," Allen said. "Hannah is playing very well right now."
Lowry is back at home on Wednesday to take on Sparks at 5 p.m. The Railroaders are winless in Division I-A North play. The Lady Bucks will have a key match-up with Truckee in Winnemucca on Friday at 6 p.m. and Lowry will hit the road Saturday to play Pershing County at 1 p.m. in Lovelock.
"I want us to keep the intensity up when we play Sparks," Allen said. "We need to play at a high level at all times. The Truckee match will be a big one for us. It's a team we know we can play with and beat."[[In-content Ad]]
