The Battle Mountain High School volleyball team went down swinging to close out homecoming week.
The Lady Longhorns gave White Pine all it can ask for and more in a thrilling back-and-forth match on Saturday afternoon. Battle Mountain rallied to win the first set 25-23, only to see the Ladycats win the next three in close fashion 25-21, 25-23 and 25-22.
Battle Mountain dropped to 2-10 in the Northern 2A with five matches left in the season.
Battle Mountain jumped out to an 8-4 lead in the opening set, but White Pine cut the deficit to a point at 9-8 after back-to-back aces. Addi Slaybaugh stopped the run with a kill and the teams traded points after that. The set was 10, 11, 13, 14 and 17.
Battle Mountain jumped in front 18-17 on ace by Brynlee Freeman, only to see White Pine score the next four points. The Ladycats held a 22-21 advantage but missed a serve on the next point. After two hitting errors by White Pine, Uliana Fagg closed out the set with a kill.
White Pine took that momentum and scored six of the first eight points of the second set. However, Battle Mountain rallied to ties the set at 8-8 after a kills by Fagg and Isabel Diaz and an ace by Kira Smith.
Aided by serving errors from the Ladycats and kills by Diaz and Fagg, the Lady Longhorns kept themselves in the set. Battle Mountain got as close as two points on three occasions, the last at 23-21, when White Pine closed out the set.
Both squads traded points for much of the third set, with Battle Mountain taking an 11-9 lead on a block by Lolly Argueta. The Lady Longhorns used kills from Slaybaugh and Fagg to turn a two-point deficit into an 18-18 tie. The Lady Longhorns scored the next two points to go in front, but a missed serve led to four straight points from White Pine. Battle Mountain held off White Pine for two set points, when the winning point found an open spot in between a group of Lady Longhorn players.
As it was for much of the day, neither team could pull away in the fourth set. Battle Mountain took its first lead at 5-4 on an ace by Smith, after scoring its first three points off of White Pine serving errors.
The Lady Longhorns erased a three-point deficit after consecutive kills by Slaybaugh and Fagg. White Pine opened its biggest lead of the set at 17-13, when Battle Mountain used an ace by Smith and kill by Diaz to close the gap to a point.
Trailing 20-17, the Lady Longhorns rallied to tie set at 22, when White Pine scored the next two points to hold on for the win.
Battle Mountain steps out of league play to travel to Eureka on Saturday for an 11 a.m. match. The Lady Longhorns are back home to face Pershing County on Thursday at 5 p.m. and Silver Stage on Friday at 5 p.m.
Battle Mountain concludes the season with home matches against Incline on Nov. 1 and North Tahoe on Nov. 2.
