Hillsboro wins in 4 sets over host Fairfield

LEESBURG — Not having a game or practice since last Thursday, the Hillsboro Lady Indians took a couple sets to get their game going to where head coach Heather Jones hoped it would be from the start, but eventually the Lady Indians won in four sets over Highland County counterpart, the Fairfield Lady Lions at Grandle Gymnasium. 

In the non-conference match, the Lady Indians and Lady Lions played a first set past the limit as HHS won the first set at 26-24. Fairfield came back with a set-two win by a 25-17 score. 

As the match was tied at 1-1, the next two sets belonged to the visiting Lady Indians against the Highland County counterpart, with Hillsboro winning set three at 25-16 and set four at 25-13 to gain the match victory 3-1 for the four-set win. 

“Sets three and four were definitely a lot better, and more to what the girls typically play,” Jones said. “It took them a while to wake up tonight. I think it was from being off all weekend with homecoming. We didn’t have practice on Friday because of homecoming, and we had a game on Thursday, so our last practice was last Wednesday. 

“The girls really had a hard time waking up and playing to their full potential, which they didn’t get to their full potential tonight, but the third and fourth sets were better. It was nice to see them playing more as a team in the third and fourth sets. We have our tournament game against Washington on Monday (Oct. 13), so all week we’ll be preparing for that.”

In set one, the set was tied 11 times from 1-1 to 24-24, as the score was tied at 18, 19, 21, 23 and 24 late in the first set. HHS scored the final two points of the first set to take the 26-24 win, as the 26th point was scored off a serve by the Lady Indians. 

The second set of the match was won by Fairfield with six tied scores from early on at 2-2 up to the score being tied at 15. From there, FHS took the lead for good with serves from Addison Cannon, and they never relinquished the top score of the set, eventually winning at 25-17 as Jorja May scored the final point.

In the third set, the Lady Indians and Lady Lions had a tied score at 2, 4, 5 and 7 points, and the tied score was broken up with a point at the net by Tylee Davis of HHS. From there, with a lead of 8-7, the Lady Indians led for the rest of the third set as they built a 15-10 lead off points from Kayla Seeling, Wagoner and Riley Pence.

The rest of the third set saw HHS build a 19-11 advantage following a point from Wagoner, and after a timeout by the Lady Lions, the Lady Indians continued to keep the lead with the set-three victory coming off a final point of FHS hitting the ball out of play for the 25-16 win. 
HHS led from start to finish in the fourth and final set, taking an 8-2 lead before a timeout was called. From there, the Lady Indians added to their total for a 14-7 lead and then again at 16-8.  Hillsboro’s final three points scored to win the fourth set and the match came from a kill by Davis, a serve from Emmalee Young and a hit by Seeling for the 25-13 set-four win. 

Hillsboro finished with 52 kills in the four-set match with Wagoner totaling 20, while Davis had 16 kills. Others with kills for HHS were Bailey Pence (6), Paisley Zink (1), Seeling (1), Marianne Mycroft (2) and Young (6). 

HHS also had eight aces as Seeling totaled three, and with one each were Wagoner, Allie Roush, Mycroft, Young and Macy Fauber. 

The Lady Indians collected 83 digs in the non-conference win, as there were five players with at least 10 digs in the match for HHS. Wagoner led with 17, and next were Davis (15), Josie Rhoades (11), and with 10 apiece were Pence and Roush. Hillsboro also had digs from Fauber (9), Seeling (7) and Young (4). 

In the assists category for HHS, as a team they had 50, as Seeling finished a majority of those by totaling 46. Wagoner had three assists, and Rhoades totaled one. 

“We had a lot of set middles, so our middles Emily and Riley, they both had some good swings tonight and that was nice to see, especially going into tournament time where we’ll need to use them a little bit more, so it was nice to see our middles step up and hit and get some kills,” Jones said.

Hillsboro is now 14-8 overall, as they finished their regular-season schedule. In the FAC, they ended with a record of 5-5. Fairfield moves to 14-6 overall, and in the SHAC they sit at 9-2. 

The No. 6 seeded Lady Indians will play a first-round Division III match Monday as they are scheduled to host the No. 11 seeded Washington Lady Blue Lions (1-20) at 7 p.m. at Hillsboro High School. 

In Division VI tournament action, the Lady Lions, who are ranked No. 5, will host the No. 12 seeded Paint Valley Lady Bearcats (2-16) Tuesday, Oct. 14 at 7 p.m.