WINNEMUCCA - It was a rollercoaster of a night for the Lowry High School varsity volleyball team, who played host to rival Elko on Tuesday night.
The Lady Bucks watched as the Indians easily won the opening set 25-14, only to come back and blitz Elko 25-14 in the second set. The Indians came back and controlled the third and fourth sets to win 25-13 and 25-19.
"The thing we are looking for is consistency right now," said LHS head coach Megan Allen. "We were just up and down and we need to find a way to stay at a high level for the entire match."
Sierra Thiede started off the first set with a kill for Lowry, but Elko countered with a 7-2 run to grab control early. The Lady Bucks battled back to a 10-10 tie after back-to-back kills by Meg Montero and Juliana Velasco.
The Indians dominated from there, going on a 15-4 run and forcing the Lady Bucks to call two timeouts. Neither stoppage could halt the Elko rally.
Lowry (3-4 Division I-A North, 9-12 overall) changed the momentum at the start of the second set, scoring seven of the first nine points, leading to an Elko timeout. During the early run, Velasco had two kills, a tip and a block and Thiede added a kill as well.
The Indians cut the deficit to 8-7, but the Lady Bucks quickly countered with five consecutive points and were not challenged from there. Lowry used a 7-0 run late in the set to build an 11-point lead off a block by Payton Naveran and Auri Criddle and kills by Rachel Sigurdson and Velasco.
"We just played stellar in the second set," Allen said. "We blocked well, we hit and we passed well. It was just the opposite of the first game."
What momentum the Lady Bucks had quickly evaporated as the Indians scored the first eight points of the third set, before Velasco ended the run with a kill. Lowry closed to within four points to 14-10 off of kills by Sigurdson and Criddle, but got no closer. Elko closed out the set on an 11-2 run to grab control of the match.
The swings in the action continued into the fourth set as Lowry scored eight of the first 10 points. Elko climbed within three points at 10-7, but a tip by the Lady Bucks' Ere Higbee and a kill by Montero kept the margin at four points.
Trailing 13-9, Elko rallied with an 8-0 run to lead 17-13 and increased the advantage to 21-14. Sigurdson attempted to keep the Lady Bucks to within striking distance with a pair of kills to cut the lead to 23-19, but the Indians scored the next two points to claim the match.
"There are going to be ups and downs and we have to be able to handle it," Allen said. "We have done it before this year against Fernley and Fallon. We know we can do that and we talked about that after the match. What I like is we had good production off the bench."
Lowry has a busy few days ahead beginning Saturday in Spring Creek with a 1 p.m. match with the Spartans. The Lady Bucks are back on the road Tuesday to play South Tahoe at 6 p.m. and then travel to Dayton on Thursday for a 5 p.m. start with the Dust Devils.
"It is a tough road trip for us in the next week," Allen said. "It is a must win for us against Spring Creek if we want to be part of the playoff hunt. It's a long weekday trip to South Tahoe and we will have to be ready to go. We showed the first time that we can play with them."
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