Lady Wolverines beat Homedale but take tough loss to Fruitland

The Lady Wolverines hit the road last week for their first league pairing of the 2022 season against the Homedale Trojans, and apparently loaded their brooms on the bus with them because the Lady Wolverines swept the Lady Trojans in straight sets, 25-9, 25-16, and 25-18.

Fruitland

 Coming off the impressive win against the Trojans, the Lady Wolverines hoped their good fortune would continue into the home match-up against Snake River Valley Conference league rivals, the Fruitland Grizzlies.  

 If you missed the match last Thursday in the Tom Falash Gymnasium, you missed an exciting match!

 The Lady Wolverines and the Grizzlies started out the first set neck and neck, trading points to the 7-7 mark, but serve receive trouble, coupled with coverage of the Grizzlies’ tips put the Lady Wolverines in a funk that was impossible for them to recover from.  

 A hard kill in the middle by Mattie Shirts, stopped the Grizzlies surge temporarily at 14-18, but the comeback was short-lived, and the Grizzlies took the set 24-17 from the Wolverines.

 The Lady Wolverines regrouped during the break between sets, and came out with a new intensity, beginning with an ace serve by Abi Wilkins to start the set.  Again, trading points until the 5-5 mark, the Grizzlies began to surge ahead once again, and the Wolverines found themselves trailing 6-10.  

 A kill by Wilkins, and kills from Jasi Yraguen, Kamryn Doty, and Shirts pulled the Wolverines within 1-point at 11-12.   The Wolverines capitalized on a setting error by the Grizzlies and pulled ahead off a kill by Wilkins.  

 The intensity by the Wolverines was great, and throughout several long rallies, the Wolverines worked hard to fill the holes and pick up the tips that plagued them previously.  

 A timeout to regroup by the Grizzlies was ineffective, and the Wolverines continued to push, taking a 19-16 lead.  Unfortunately, the Grizzlies clawed back into the set off Wolverine errors, regaining their lead 19-21.  

 A dribbler serve by Bailey Coleman that caught the Grizzlies off guard, energized the Wolverines, and they went on a 6-0 scoring run including kills from Coleman and Yraguen and consecutive aces from Wilkins, taking the set 25-21.

 The third set was a repeat of the previous two, with the Wolverines falling behind early.  Trailing 6-8, Shirts slammed a kill from the middle position, but despite the impressive nature of the play, it did not get the Wolverines rolling. However, with a 7-11 deficit, the Wolverines found a groove when a tip kill by Yraguen put Danica Lockett behind the service line. Several errors by the Grizzlies, coupled with a service ace set the stage for an 8-1 scoring run by the Wolverines.  

 The Lady Wolverines continued to work hard, and despite some errors that enabled the Grizzlies to tie the set 20-20, the Wolverines kept their composure and took the third set 26-24.

 Leading the Grizzles 2 sets to 1, the fourth set was uncharacteristically messy and riddled with mental mistakes. The Wolverines fell behind early but were unable to rebound this time and lost the fourth set 15-24.

 The Lady Wolverines were against the wall and needed to regroup for the fifth and final set, but despite some extremely hard kills from Shirts, the Lady Wolverines were unable to take the match, falling to the Grizzlies 10-15 and losing the match 2-3.

 Mattie Shirts led the Wolverines with an astounding 17 kills, followed by Abi Wilkins with 10 kills, 2 digs and several service aces.  Bailey Coleman and Rylee Roberts had 20 and 16 digs, respectively, while Madi Wilkins had a big game with 22 assists and 19 digs.