Eureka girls earn league split

The Lady Vandals were on the road again last week for matches at Carlin and league leading Owyhee. “We won against Carlin,” said Eureka coach Katie Benson.” Scores were 25-16, 25-10, 25-15.

“I thought we played very well,” Benson said, “with Isabella Minoletti contributing five aces, four kills, and 13 digs. Josie Hoekenga has 10 assists and Jenesis Dominguez also contributed four kills.”

But the next day was a different story, facing up against the Owyhee Braves in Owyhee. “We lost this one in a tough three set match,” said Benson, 18-25, 23-25, 20-25. “Played hard, but just couldn’t pull it out.”

Scores showed that Eureka played Owyhee close in each game.

Owyhee (13-2, 4-0) came into the match riding an eight match win streak.

Benson credited Molly Zimmerman with five aces, and Isabella Minoletti and Sage Borba each contributed 13 digs, while Carlie Wells contributing five kills.

Heading into this week’s action Bension said, “The team (7-10, 3-1) knows what we are going to work on during the week to keep improving and moving forward. I’m proud of how they played as a team against Owyhee.”

It was the second loss of the season to Owyhee. Eureka lost 2-0 in the tournament at Round Mountain the end of August.

This week, the girls have a league match at home with McDermitt, a two-match meeting, then go to Oasis Academy in Fallon on Saturday for a non-league game.

Following this week’s play, Eureka has four of their remaining six matches of the regular season on their home court. They will close out the season at Wells and Tonopah Oct. 25-26

The Northern regional playoffs this year, West verses Central leagues, are slated for Nov. 8-9 in Virginia City. The state tournament follows Nov. 14-16 for all classifications at Faith Lutheran High School in Las Vegas.