WINNEMUCCA - If there is a sign that the Lowry High School varsity volleyball team is on the upward swing of being one of the top teams in the Division I-A North, it came Tuesday night in Fallon.
The Lady Bucks were facing match point in the fifth set against the Greenwave, but battled back from near defeat to beat Churchill County 15-25, 25-15, 18-25, 25-20 and 16-14 to improve to 3-2 in the Division I-A North and 9-10 overall.
"It was a fun match to be a part of," said LHS head coach Megan Allen. "It was a great atmosphere in the gym. I am not sure where we were in the first game but we played well the rest of the night."
Churchill County was poised to notch its second straight win after Ali Tedford's tip put the Lady Wave up 14-12 in the final set. Lowry, though, countered with a kill from Rachel Sigurdson and a double-touch call on Churchill County to tie the game at 14-14.
The Lady Bucks' Jillian Albright smashed home a kill to give the Lady Bucks the lead at 15-14 and Churchill County's Kyla Kincaid hit the ball into the net to seal Lowry's comeback.
"It was point by point in the fifth game," Allen said. "We managed to fight back, which was nice to see. The girls have a really good mindset right now. The seniors really stepped up for us."
Churchill County opened the match red-hot, rolling to a 25-15 win in the first set. Tedford, who had a team-high 27 assists, netted a service ace for an 11-4 lead and Megan McCormick pushed the lead to 19-10 on her serve.
Evan Matheson tallied a block and the final kill to give the Lady Wave a convincing opening-game win. Matheson, though, suffered a knee injury early in the third set and did not return.
Although Churchill County appeared poised to sweep Lowry out of the gym, the Lady Bucks settled in and dominated the second set. Juliana Velasco put Lowry up 17-10 on her serve and closed out the set after Ere Higbee put Lowry up 24-15.
The third set, though, saw the two clubs hold even throughout until McCormick stepped to the service line with Churchill County trailing 15-12. She rattled off five aces on six serves and gave the Lady Wave an 18-16 lead, which held up for the rest of the set. McCormick also added six kills.
Mary Scholz, who had a team-high 16 kills, neatly tipped a ball over and Izzy Thomas' winner put the Lady Wave up 20-17. Churchill County closed out the set after Tedford served up an assist to Kincaid.
The Lady Bucks battled back in the fourth set through a tightly contested game. Tied at 20, Lowry rattled off the next five points behind a tip from Higbee, an ace from Sierra Thiede and back-to-back kills from Velasco and Albright.
"We got little contributions from all the girls and that is huge," Allen said. "Carly (Bell) went in a couple of times to just serve and got us a couple of points."
Velasco led Lowry with 14 kills and four blocks. Auri Criddle and Thiede each had three kills and Allison Barron, Meg Montero and Sigurdson two each. Darion Iturriaga added 13 digs.
"We just made those mental errors again," said Churchill County head coach Patty Daum. "It's that athletic maturity. We competed, we went to five and we had opportunities. We just couldn't close it."
Lowry traveled to Truckee on Friday, Sept. 20, to take on the Wolverines, who have won three of the last four Division I-A state championships. Truckee also played in last year's state tournament, losing to Chaparral in the semifinals.
The Lady Bucks provided the Wolverines a battle, leading late in the first and third sets before Truckee came back to win 25-23, 25-14 and 27-25.
Lowry led 22-18 in the first set and again at 22-18 in the third set but could not hold the leads. Allen said it was a disappointing loss for the Lady Bucks.
Velasco led Lowry with eight kills to go along with two blocks. Sierra Thiede added five kills and Montero, Sigurdson and Higbee each had three kills. Montero also contributed four blocks, while Payton Naveran had two blocks.
Albright and Velasco had three aces apiece, Montero added two and Higbee had six assists.
Lowry was strong defensively with 124 digs, including 25 from Iturriaga, the Lady Bucks' libero. Thiede had 20 digs and Sigurdson (15), Barron (15), Albright (14), and Higbee (11) were all in double figures with digs.
Lowry is back at home tonight to face South Tahoe, the defending Division I-A state champion at 6 p.m. The Lady Bucks return to their home floor on Tuesday to play Elko at 6 p.m.
"Those will be big matches for us," Allen said. "It will good to be back at home."
Lahontan Valley News sports editor Steve Puterski contributed to this story.[[In-content Ad]]
