Lady Vandals give Braves a scare; beat Carlin

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The Eureka County High School girls volleyball team was up two sets on the Owyhee Braves (13-6, 6-2) on Saturday, Oct. 3. After taking set one 26-24 and set two 25-21, the Lady Vandals couldn’t finish off the Braves, losing the third set in heartbreaking fashion, 25-23. Owyhee went on to win the next two sets 25-19 and 15-12. 

Eureka failed to win a set the first time it played Owyhee this season, so it was a massive improvement, especially for a team not at full strength. 

“I told them they had to bring their A-game and play with everything they had. We were missing one of our starters, but the girls played with a ton of grit and determination,” Eureka head coach Erin Vial said. “They fought until the end and had some excellent rallies.”

ECHS junior Reagan Mello led the Lady Vandals with 10 kills, three blocks and a 38.5% kill rate. Sophomore Avery Berg added five aces and delivered 15 assists. Serve receive was an issue for Eureka, however. The Lady Vandals had 26 return errors in 46 attempts.

“Owyhee had some killer serves that we struggled returning, and they were sneaky with their tips, which threw us off a little bit. We came so close, but just ran out of gas in the end,” Vial said. “It’s very likely we will meet them again at regionals, and we are looking forward to it.”

Eureka did get a league win over Carlin in straight sets, 25-19, 25-11, 25-19, on Thursday, Oct. 1. The Lady Vandals scored 16 aces as a team and served at nearly 85%. Senior Brooke Watts had eight kills and a 61.5% kill rate. 

ECHS (9-12, 4-4) sits third in the Eastern 1A and is at McDermitt (5-12, 3-4), the current fifth seed, at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 10. Eureka won its first meeting with the Lady Bulldogs 3-0.