WINNEMUCCA - Throughout the season, the Lowry High School varsity volleyball team has seen victories slip away on a number occasions.
Playing in front of their home crowd for the final time this year, the Lady Bucks made sure that did not happen again, with a 25-19, 25-27, 25-19, 17-25 and 15-11 win over Elko on Tuesday night. In addition, Lowry wore pink uniforms on the night for breast cancer awareness and celebrated senior night.
"It is a win and we had to fight for it at the end," said LHS head coach Bob Rice. "Elko was pretty scrappy in the fifth game and was coming up with everything we hit at them. We were hitting pretty hard at them. It was nice to get a win on senior night and nice to see the girls get excited. It has been a pretty rough season. They kept the enthusiasm going and didn't give in."
Elko jumped to a 6-4 lead in the first set, when Stephanie Sappington converted on consecutive aces to tie it up at 6-6. The Lady Bucks scored the next point and did not trail again. Juliana Velasco, Paige Thiede and Rachel Sigurdson each had three kills in the opening set. Lowry built a seven-point lead, 21-14, and cruised to the finish, with Sammantha LaTray finishing off the Indians with a kill.
No team had more than a three-point lead in the second set, with Elko holding a 12-9 advantage. The two schools traded points for the most part, with Lowry grabbing a 20-18 lead late in the first set.
The Indians led 23-22 when they missed a serve and followed that with a miss hit, giving the Lady Bucks a 24-23 advantage. Lowry wasn't able to seal the deal on set point, with Elko tying it back up at 24-24. On the next point, Velasco nailed down a kill to put the Lady Bucks back in front. That was the last time Lowry led, with Elko scoring the final three points, which included an ace.
Lowry controlled the third set from the start and led by six points at 19-13 on a block by Velasco. The Lady Bucks continued to hit the ball well, with Sigurdson and Velasco each contributing three kills. Thiede, Sappington and Jessica Jensen each had two kills in the third set.
Lowry took that momentum into the fourth set and was leading 15-12, when the wheels fell off. Elko stormed back with nine consecutive points and was not challenged again by the Lady Bucks.
Elko grabbed a 5-3 lead in the fifth and deciding set, when Velasco tied the set on a kill. Thiede followed with a kill of her own to put the Lady Bucks up 8-6.
The set was tied twice more, when Jensen's kill gave Lowry the lead for good. The junior collected her third kill of the fifth set, giving the Lady Bucks a 14-11 advantage and Rachel Sigurdson closed out the match with a kill off the face of one of the Elko players.
The Lady Bucks had nine kills in the final set - two each by Velasco, Thiede and Jensen. In addition, Jensen had three blocks.
Lowry (6-20 overall, 1-9 Division I-A, 3-5 Ruby Mountain) had 48 kills on the night, led by Thiede with 11 and Sigurdson with nine. Velasco had eight kills and Sappington and Jensen had six and five digs, respectively.
LaTray and Velasco each had five blocks, Sappington added four and Thiede and Jensen each had three blocks. Ere Higbee led the Lady Bucks with 35 assists and Cortni Welch at 31 digs. In addition, Higbee had 13 digs and Thiede and Sigurdson finished with nine and seven digs, respectively.
"I was proud of how the girls came back after the fourth game," Rice said. "We looked to be in control of the game and Elko made a comeback on us. We played well tonight as a team and it showed the girls that we can win these kinds of matches."
Lowry traveled to Ely on Thursday to play White Pine and results were not available at press time. The Lady Bucks finished their season today in West Wendover at noon. Lowry has been eliminated from postseason contention.
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