The Lowry High School volleyball team completed its final regular season road trip of the year, with a four-set victory against rival Elko.
The Lady Bucks won the first set 25-22, but dropped the second set by the same score. Lowry bounced back to win the final two sets 25-15 and 26-24 to secure the fifth seed for the Northern 3A Regional Championships.
“I thought we played well,” said LHS coach Brandon Eastman. “We got out to good starts in each of the sets. Elko came back on us, but we were just that step above them and a little better. We went in there and did what we needed to do. A win is a win at this point in the season.”
The Lady Bucks raced out to an 11-5 lead in the opening set, but saw that advantage disappear when the Indians went on a 7-0 run to go in front 12-11.
The two teams traded points from there, as Lowry made a late run to capture the first set by three points.
After the two rivals, split the first four points of the second set, Lowry scored six of the next eight points to go in front 10-6. Elko battled back and slowly cut into the Lowry lead and eventually tied the set at 15-15.
Following a Lady Buckaroo timeout, Elko’s Paige Zeller followed with a kill and Lexi Baum served four points in a row to make the score 20-16. Lowry closed the gap to 22-20 but could no closer as the Indians claimed the second set.
Lowry rebounded in the third set to grab an 11-9 lead and broke the game open with a 9-2 run to lead 19-11 and the Lady Bucks never looked back.
The Lady Bucks jumped out to an early lead in the fourth set, only to see the Indians claw their way back to go in front. Lowry battled back and claimed the victory on a kill in the to the middle of an open spot on the Elko side of the floor.
“We got contributions from a lot of girls and that was nice to see,” Eastman said. “It is always tough to play in Elko.”
Lowry (8-6 Northern 3A) entered its final two home matches with a playoff spot in hand. The Lady Bucks took league-leading Truckee on Thursday and Sparks on Friday. Results were not available at press time.
Lowry likely will take on South Tahoe on Friday, Nov. 4, in the first round of the Northern 3A Regional Championships in Fallon at 5 p.m.
“We pretty much know who we are going to play,” added the coach. “Right now our focus is on South Tahoe and finding a way to beat them. We can’t look past them and toward them. If we don’t win on Friday the season is over for us.”
Elko (5-10) was in a must-win in its final game of the Northern 3A.
Elko currently is tied for the sixth and final spot to the postseason with Fernley, which lost in three sets on Tuesday at Fallon.
Elko played Spring Creek and Fernley took on South Tahoe to close out the regular season.
If Elko won its match it would take on Dayton in the opening round of the playoffs.
Truckee won the regular season championship and Churchill County is second and will get opening round bye in the regional playoffs.
