Lady Vandals Continue Hot Start to Season

Meeting for the first time ever, the Lady Vandals strong volleyball team took the measure of Whittell last week at Whittell. Eureka won the match 3-0, by scores of 25-12, 25-13, 25-15.

Coach Kathryn Benson singled out Savannah Sanders as a Vandal who played “solid defense and passed well.” Another player she pointed to was Mikayla Talbot and the fine job she did playing offense.

Following their trip to the Lake Tahoe area, the team was back home on Saturday to take on the Tonopah Muckers in a non-league match and won in four sets, 25-16, 25-21, 19-25, and 25-14. “Shauna Brown did a good job running the offense,” Benson said, “with Coby Gibbs doing an excellent job for us on defense.”

League play begins this week with the first game on the road at Wells this Friday.

On Sept. 19, White Pine comes to Eureka for another non-league meeting and on Sept. 22 the girls are back in league play as they host Jackpot. The Jaguars surprised the Vandals last year winning in straight sets, 3-0. However, the Vandals are 5-2 with Jackpot since 2007.

Benson said Wells and Eureka played in the Battle Mountain tournament Sept. 8 and Eureka won both games in pool play. “However, being as this match is at Wells they always come with a good team and are scrappy. It’s our first league game and we are going to need to play tough.”

The non-league match with White Pine will be the third meeting between the teams this season. The first matches were at the White Pine tournament at the beginning of the month. White Pine won both matches. Benson said, “They were very good games for us. We played excellent on both offense and defense. I hope we can do that again in this match, minimize some of our previous mistakes and come up with a win.”