The season may be just two weeks old, but the Lowry High School volleyball team is looking poised to relive the glory years of the mid-2000s.
After winning the North Tahoe Invitational to begin the season, the Lady Bucks went 7-1 at the Yerington Invitational this past weekend to finish second in their Gold Pool bracket.
"We played a lot of volleyball over the two days," said LHS coach Megan Allen. "I was extremely pleased with the way we played. The best compliment we could get was other coaches saying it is nice to see Lowry volleyball playing like this again. That is a credit to the girls and their work ethic."
In pool play on Friday, Sept. 5, Lowry knocked off Smith Valley 25-13 and 25-23 to begin the tournament. The Lady Bucks needed three sets to defeat Bishop, Calif., 25-18, 19-25, 15-14. Lowry was forced to three sets once again in its match against Spanish Springs, coming away with the 25-21, 22-25 and 15-12 victory. The Cougars have played in the last three Division I North Regional Championships and were the state champions in 2012. The Lady Bucks closed out pool play with a 25-11 and 25-10 win over Sparks.
"It was a good experience to play those higher level teams," Allen said. "Bishop was a strong team and to get the win over Spanish Springs was huge for us. It's good for us to play high-level schools right now."
Lowry earned the No. 1 seed in its Gold Bracket on Saturday and easily won the opener over Fernley 25-18 and 25-13. The Lady Bucks followed that up with a 25-14 and 29-27 win over Pershing County.
Lowry's first loss of the season came at the hands of Damonte Ranch. The Mustangs beat the Lady Bucks 25-18 and 25-11.
"Damonte Ranch was a strong team and we did our best against them," said the coach. "They knew how to position the ball very well. They could place their kills where they wanted to. I thought we did a good job of adapting our defense. We moved the defense around and started to frustrate them a little. We blocked their hitters very well."
Lowry (12-1) closed out the weekend with a 25-17 and 25-14 win over The Meadows out of Las Vegas. Lowry was without Ashlee Barron for most of the tournament. The junior injured her ankle during play on the first day of action. The coach added that Barron will likely miss this weekend's league openers, but said other players stepped up in her absence.
"For us to go 7-1 is a huge accomplishment," Allen said. "I don't know when a Lowry volleyball team did that. We still are working on getting better. We got some good leadership from the older players and the underclassmen got a lot of playing time. They did very well and it was a great experience from them."
Lowry is back on the road this weekend to begin Division I-A North play, starting tonight at Dayton at 6 p.m. The Dust Devils are the defending league and regional champions. Lowry beat Dayton earlier this year in North Tahoe. The Lady Bucks move to Fernley on Saturday for a 1 p.m. match. The long road trip continues on Wednesday at Sparks at 6 p.m.
"This is a big weekend for us and we are looking to get a couple of wins," Allen said. "We are going to be missing a few girls, but I have the confidence in our girls that they can step up and fill those spots. We are going to tweak the lineup a bit for this weekend."[[In-content Ad]]
