MCDERMITT - It was a mixed bag of results for the McDermitt High School volleyball team, who opened up Division IV East play last week against Wells and Jackpot.
The Lady Bulldogs hosted the Leopards on Thursday afternoon and Wells came away with a sweep of the doubleheader, winning 25-23 and 25-22 and 25-18 and 25-17.
MHS head coach Austin Mayo said that Wells has long runs of serving in each match to open up big leads and the Lady Bulldogs could not recover.
"We didn't get off to the best start in either match," Mayo said. "We were down by nine and 10 points at times. We fought back to make it close, but we ran out of time in the end. It would have been nice to win one of those matches. Wells was a quality team."
McDermitt (1-3 Division IV East, 3-4 overall) was back on the floor on Friday afternoon to host Jackpot. The Lady Bulldogs claimed the first match 25-18 and 30-28, but the Jaguars came back to win match two of the doubleheader 23-25, 25-19 and 25-9.
"We are having trouble playing a full match right now," Mayo said. "It's just frustrating because I know how they are capable of playing. We play well at times and then make mistakes like it was the first day of practice."
In the opening set of the first match, Jackpot scored four of the first five points, but McDermitt quickly fought back to tie the set at 6-6. From there, the Lady Bulldogs' Connor Stanford took over. The freshman served the next 13 points, including three aces to put McDermitt up 19-6. As part of the same run, Lydia Northrup and Kristan Long had two kills apiece.
The Lady Bulldogs led by as many as 16 points at 23-7 following a kill by Northrup but allowed the Jaguars to close the gap to 24-18 before closing out the set.
McDermitt controlled much of the second set, leading by as many as five points on three different occasions, including the last at 18-13. However, Jackpot came back to tie the set at 20-20 and claimed the advantage at 22-21.
The Lady Bulldogs came back to regain the lead and had match point at 25-24 after a tip into the open floor by Dacey Horn. However, the Jaguars fought match point off and had three chances to win the set at 26-25, 27-26 and 28-27, but served the ball in the net each time. With the set tied at 28-28, McDermitt's Long fired an ace and Northrup won the match at 30-28 with a kill.
"We made it way closer than it needed to be," added the coach. "We had a chance to close them out earlier in the match and just let Jackpot hang in there. We were fortunate that they served the ball three times into the net on set point."
McDermitt dominated the first set of the second match, scoring seven of the first 10 points, which included two kills by Deandra Dave. Jackpot closed within five points at 12-7, but it was all Lady Bulldogs from there.
McDermitt could not keep the momentum rolling as Jackpot fired off nine of the first 12 points in the second set and never trailed. The Jaguars led by as many as nine points at 21-12, before holding on for the six-point win.
The Jaguars ran with the momentum and quickly jumped out to a 6-1 advantage in the third set that is played to 15. A kill by Northrup brought the Lady Bulldogs to within three points at 10-7, but McDermitt could get no closer as Jackpot closed the match on a 5-2 run.
"When we play together we are very tough to beat," Mayo said. "When we don't, we cause problems for ourselves. That is something we need to work on."
McDermitt is back on the floor for home matches against Carlin on Friday at 4 p.m. and Eureka on Saturday at 10 a.m. Both matches are doubleheaders.
[[In-content Ad]]
