With the playoffs in its sight, the Lowry High School volleyball team closed out the regular season against the best of the Northern 3A and the bottom of the league last week in Winnemucca.
The Lady Bucks took on Truckee on Thursday night and they battled with the lone undefeated team in the league, but the regular season champ left with a 25-22, 25-15, 19-25 and 25-15 win.
“There is really nothing I can fault with our play,” said LHS coach Brandon Eastman. “Realistically, we should have won the opening set. We played our best volleyball of the year in the third set. We tried to keep Maia (Dvoracek) from beating us. We stopped her a few times, but she adjusted to our defense. If they need a point they are going to go to her. I was really happy with the energy we played with.”
It was a different atmosphere on a rainy Friday outside the gym, as Lowry took on Sparks. The Railroaders were winless on the season as they entered the season finale. It was also senior day and the Lady Bucks honored Hannah Hillyer, Madison Montero, Brooklyn Waller and Aimee Brandon.
Lowry dominated the match, sweeping Sparks 25-15, 25-10 and 25-18 to finish the regular season at 9-7 in the Northern 3A and 11-16 overall.
The Railroaders scored the first point of the match, but it was all Lady Bucks from there. Lowry scored the next five points and quickly pushed the lead to 14-3, forcing Sparks to call a timeout. Brandon, Montero, Hillyer and Kyllie Sappington all had kills in the early going.
The Lady Bucks led by as many as 12 points at 17-5, following a kill by Hillyer and the Railroaders never posed a problem. Sparks closed the gap to 18-10 at one time, only to see a tip from Jadyn Eastman and a kill by Montero to put the set out of reach.
The second set was close early on, as Ana Ochoa used a kill to put Lowry up 8-5. Back-to-back aces by Sappington started a 14-3 run by the Lady Bucks to close out the set. Lowry scored the final eight points of the second set, which including a diving dig by Kepa Bengochea that landed in between Sparks players, Hillyer had an ace and Montero a kill to aid Lowry as well.
The third set was much of the same, with the Lady Bucks scoring nine of the first 11 points. Lowry led by nine points at one point, before holding on for the seven-point win.
Coach Eastman gave each senior a chance to sub out in the final stages to the match, with all receiving a standing ovation from the crowd and bench.
Lowry heads to Fallon this weekend for the Northern 3A Regional Championships.
Lowry faces South Tahoe on Friday at 5 p.m. at Churchill County High School. Elko and Dayton is the other first-round match-up at 7 p.m.
If the Lady Bucks win, they will face Truckee on Saturday at noon. Churchill County will play either Elko or Dayton at 2 p.m. on Saturday. ww
The championship is set for 4:30 p.m. The top two teams advance to the state tournament at Damonte Ranch High School in Reno.
“All we are thinking about is South Tahoe,” Eastman said. “We are going to try to do dome things different on defense. They have found a couple holes on our side of the floor and we want to fix that. If we get to play Truckee again, we have nothing to lose.”
