YREKA – The Yreka Lady Miner JV volleyball team dropped game-one to the Lassen Lady Grizzlies 25-20, and looked to be in trouble in game-two. But Yreka, pulled off a 26-24 win on a block by Alexis Yaple-Whitten, to send the match to a decisive game-three.

Lassen took an early 5-2 lead in the final game—a game to 15 points, Yreka battled back to tie it at 6-6 on an ace by Theresa Borg. A Kalina Betts’ kill gave the Lady Miners the lead 7-6. With the score knotted at 9-9, Karlee Andrighetto regained the lead for Yreka at 10-9, with a kill. A block by Whitten, and a pair of aces by Andrighetto put Yreka up 13-9. Yreka went on to win 15-10.

Varsity

The Lady Miner varsity squad started slow out of the gate, and really never clicked, despite winning game-two. Lassen sprinted out to an eight point lead in game-one 13-5, before Yreka rallied to make it close. A serving error by the Lady Grizzlies made it 13-6. Whitney Ebejer served up an ace, making it 13-7. A kill by Kayla Whistler narrowed the margin to 13-8.

Yreka cut Lassen’s lead to a single point at 17-16, but the Grizzlies pushed the lead back up to four points at 23-19. The Lady Miners, however, had one more rally in them. A Carrie Watson kill made the score 23-20. Molly Todd used a dink for a kill, making it 23-21. Ebejer nailed a kill to cut it to one point, at 23-22, but Lassen held on for a 25-23 win.

In game-two, it was Yreka’s turn to start out strong, going up 5-0, with help from a Watson kill and block, as well as an M. Todd kill. Lassen cut the deficit to three points at 9-6, but the Miners went on an 8-0 run to take what appeared to be a commanding lead of 17-6. Mallory Greenfield had the serve for the entire run, and registered two aces.

Then Lassen erupted for a 17-7 run to narrow the lead to 24-23, before Yreka won 25-23 on an Ebejer kill.

Unfortunately for the Lady Miners, they were unable to seize the momentum, and lost the next two games 16-25 and 17-25, for a 1-3 match loss.

Frosh

The Lady Miner frosh squad lost a tight game-one 24-26, but rebounded with a 25-18 game-two win to force game-three. After falling behind 4-0 in game-three, Yreka came back to tie the score at 5-5 on an ace by Miranda Parsons. Yreka fell behind again, but tied it at 7-7 on a Celena Grant ace. With the Lady Miners leading 11-10, Tianna Cruz notched an ace, making it 12-10. An exchange of service errors brought the score to 13-11 for Yreka, but the Lady Grizzlies scored the next four points to win the game 15-13, and the match 2-1.