WINNEMUCCA - The Lowry High School varsity girls volleyball team had the tall task of hosting the three-time Division I-A state champion on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Bucks (3-15 overall, 0-6 Division I-A) battled with Truckee in all three sets, but the Wolverines prevailed with a 25-21, 25-16 and 25-19 victory.
"We came out and played pretty good against a tough team," said LHS head coach Bob Rice. "The girls communicated well and worked hard. We made a few little mistakes and Truckee took advantage of them. We passed OK but still need to pass a little better."
Lowry scored two of the first three points of the first set, only to see Truckee rally and grab a 13-7 advantage after going on an 8-2 run when the set was tied at 5-5. Juliana Velasco stopped the spurt, with a kill and Paige Thiede added a block to keep the Lady Bucks within six points at 16-10.
Truckee maintained its six-point lead at 20-14, when Lowry slowly closed the gap. A pair of kills by Velasco and Rachel Sigurdson cut the deficit to 24-21, when the Wolverines scored the next point to win the set.
"They (Truckee) are always in the spot you are trying to hit to," Rice said. "They cover the floor well and they picked a lot of balls. We made a lot of good plays and they picked them up. You have to give them credit for that. But we did the same thing to them. We did a lot of good things."
Lowry scored the first point of the second set, only to see Truckee control the play from there. The Wolverines pulled out to a 14-9 advantage, when the Lady Bucks' Shelby McKinnon and Thiede had a tip and kill, respectively, to make the score 15-11. Lowry scored the next two points to trail by two, but Truckee closed the set out on a 10-3 run.
Lowry held the lead in the early part of the third set at 4-2, when Truckee used a 6-1 run to regain the advantage. A kill by Velasco stopped the spurt and the Lady Bucks came back to tie the set at 12-12.
Truckee scored the next point and did not trail again, but Lowry did not go down without a fight. Kylee McClellan provided a block and ace in consecutive plays to bring Lowry within five points at 19-14. Sammantha LaTray finished off an ace to make the score 23-19. That was as close as the Lady Bucks got, with the Wolverines scoring the next two points to win the match.
Thiede and Sigurdson led Lowry with two kills apiece, while Stephanie Sappington, Jessica Jensen and Velasco each had three blocks. Ere Higbee had a team-high five assists to go with three digs and Cortni Welch and Thiede had seven and four digs, respectively.
Lowry hosts Spring Creek tonight at 6 p.m. with playoff implications on the line. The Lady Bucks are in a must-win situation in order to claim one of the eight regional playoff spots.
"Hopefully, this match today gets them fired up for Spring Creek," Rice said. "We lost to Spring Creek in our tournament and we have to win some matches to get to the playoffs."
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