Wed 15 Oct 2008
DUNSMUIR – If Dunsmuir volleyball coach Lisa Kirch is sporting a few new gray hairs, it’s understandable. Her Lady Tigers seem to like play from behind, and then cut it as close as possible before finally winning. It happened again on Tuesday against the Tulelake Honkers.
The Lady Tigers won game-one 25-19. In game-two, Dunsmuir cruised out to a 13-3 lead, and it appeared that it would be an easy 3-0 match win. Then, Tulelake came storming back, going on a 15-5 run to tie the game at 18-18. The squads went back and forth until they reached 23-23. Both teams had two opportunities to put the game away, and failed, before Tulelake finally won it on their third try 30-28.
The Lady Honkers dominated game-three, jumping out to a 10-1 lead, and going on to win 25-15.
Tulelake also took a sizable lead early in game-four, at 10-5. The Lady Tigers, however, came to life and ripped off a 14-3 run to take a commanding lead 19-13. Jennifer Hope blasted four aces during the run. Leading 20-15,
Lady Tiger Rose Spagnola took the serve, and Dunsmuir scored four straight, including three Spagnola aces, making it 24-15. The Lady Honkers cut the deficit to 24-18, but a Tulelake hitting error gave Dunsmuir the win 25-18, tying the match at 2-2.
As one might have expected, game-five was a nail-biter. Tulelake served first and took a 2-0 lead. The Lady Tigers responded with a kill from Katie McIntyre to gain the serve. A pair of aces by Hope, put Dunsmuir up 3-2. The Lady Honkers regained the lead 5-4. Spagnola notched two more of her eight aces for the match to give the Lady Tigers the lead 8-7.
Tulelake seemed to take charge of the game, when they took a 13-9 lead, and then reached match point at 14-11. But Spagnola, apparently not content with simply scorching the Honkers with aces, registered a kill to make it 14-12, giving Dunsmuir the serve. With the score 14-13, McIntyre ripped two more kills, including a cross-court beauty, to put Dunsmuir in the lead 15-14. A double hit by Tulelake gave the Lady Tigers the final point, and a 16-14 game win, as well as a 3-2 match win.
Spagnola led the Lady Tigers with eight aces. Hope had five, Taylor Fesler four, and Jamie Kirch had three aces. Sadie MacHamer led in kills with 3. McIntyre and Heather Coe each had a pair of kills.
Dunsmuir (3-1, 7-7) travels to
