Lady Vandals Win Three

Three up and three down. The Lady Vandals volleyball team had a busy Homecoming week with many school activities to be involved in. Then they also had leagues matches to pay attention to. And so they did. Three matches in two days. First, against Wells on Thursday and on Friday, a doubleheader with visiting McDermitt.

The girls beat Wells 3-1 by scores of 25-12, 26-24, 23-25, 25-11. Coach Katie Benson said the Wells match was the day after the homecoming Powder Puff game, “and the girls were playing like they were tired. In those sets, we missed several serves, were not playing as well as they could, kind of struggling with some unforced errors. But they support each other and mentally came together, played tough, and pulled it out after losing the third set to the Leopards.”

She said several of the players had a few scoring runs in a row and that really helped. “Our first three servers scored four points each and stretched the lead out in the final game to a 12-6 advantage. A six-point lead right at the beginning can be a pretty strong message.”

Shauna Brown, the setter, is playing very solid at present Benson said. “She is working hard for the team. On defense, our Libero, Savanna Sanders, is playing tough and Kelli Norris is playing well also, showing a lot of heart and spirit.”

Friday was a doubleheader with McDermitt, two matches the same day because of the distance the Bulldogs has to travel. 265 miles. Football plays just one game in a season, whereas the volleyball teams play home-and-home, but due to the great distance with McDermitt, they play a doubleheader. Jackpot and Owyhee likely do the same when they play McDermitt.

Scores in the first match, best of three, were 25-8, 25-15, and in the second match 25-11, 25-18. “We were rested now,” Benson said, “and looked like a completely different team. Alia Minoletti played very well in those games, and so did Norris again. Coby Gibbs and Savanna Sanders played very strong defense and Shauna Brown does a very good job running our offense.”

This weekend, the Lady Vandals play at Jackpot Friday and then at home Saturday against Carlin. Eureka won both of the previous matches.