Hillsboro Lady Indians win 2025 Spike and Dig championship

HILLSBORO — The Hillsboro Lady Indians are the 2025 Spike and Dig champions by winning two best-of-three matches in the season-opening tournament at Hillsboro High School. 

The Lady Indians (2-0) defeated Lynchburg-Clay (1-1) in the first round of the four-team tournament, and they won in the finals against the McClain Lady Tigers (1-1). 

“It is huge starting the season with two wins,” HHS head coach Heather Jones said. “We have four girls returning who have played varsity before, but we have six girls who haven’t played varsity at all. They bring a lot to the team. They play club and have a lot of years of volleyball, but just haven’t played varsity.”

All matches were non-conference games, as McClain defeated Whiteoak in their first match and fell to HHS. The third-place team was Lynchburg-Clay, winning the third-place match against Whiteoak (0-2). 

HHS against LCHS won the match by scores of 25-21 and 25-23 in the first contest of the event. HHS won in the championship round against McClain in a non-conference meeting by scores of 25-16 and 25-18, as both schools are members of the Frontier Athletic Conference.

“It feels good to get the wins, but I feel starting with our scrimmages we also did very well, so I was excited to get our season started,” Jones said. “I knew these girls mesh well, and I know they can do really well. 

“Even though we have six new girls on varsity, they all bring something to the team, and these girls play as a team. They play really well together. We have a great group of girls, and it is exciting for them to get started strong.”

McClain finished 1-1 in the event, winning against Whiteoak in their season opener by scores of 25-18 and 25-9. 

Lynchburg-Clay was also 1-1 at the event as they also defeated Whiteoak in their aforementioned third-place match by scores of 25-7 and 25-14. 

In the season opener for Hillsboro and Lynchburg-Clay, HHS won set one at 25-21 in an intense battle. That same intensity continued in set two as Hillsboro won by just two points at 25-23. 

Set two was tied three times early on at 1-1, 2-2 and 4-4, but once HHS took the lead at 5-4, they never lost that lead for the remainder of set two. It wasn’t easy as Lynchburg-Clay stayed within five to six points of the Lady Indians and got back to within two points of Hillsboro at 13-11. 

HHS eventually built a seven-point lead at 20-13 and later had a six-point lead at 23-17. LCHS made it a one-point differential at 24-23, but the Lady Indians sealed the win with a final point as the Lady Mustangs hit the ball out of play. 

Against LCHS, the Lady Indians were led by Ryan Wagoner with 13 kills and Tylee Davis with eight kills. Also with kills were Riley Pence (two), Marianne Mycroft (two) and Emmalee Young (four). 

HHS had three aces vs. Lynchburg-Clay as Josie Rhoades totaled two and Allie Roush had one. Davis led HHS with 13 digs, while Wagoner totaled 11 digs. Also with recorded digs were Kayla Seeling (seven), Roush (four), Rhoades (two), Macy Fauber (two) and Mycroft (one). 

Seeling led HHS with 27 assists vs. LCHS, and Young recorded one assist. Wagoner totaled 10 receptions to lead the team vs. LCHS. 

As for LCHS in their season opener, Kylie O’Connor and Halle Greene each led with five kills. Kills were also recorded by Melany Stephenson (one), Addy Carraher (two) and Mattie Magee (three). 

LCHS was led in aces by Joslyn Rockey with three, while having one ace each were Ava McLaughlin, Stephenson and Avery Shope. Lynchburg-Clay also had two blocks with one each by Magee and Greene.

Leading in digs for the Lady Mustangs was Rockey with 12, followed by Stephenson with eight and Shope with six. Jules Vesey finished with four digs, while digs were also collected by Ava McLaughlin (five), Greene (two), Carraher (one) and O’Connor (one). The assists leader for LCHS was McLaughlin with 15. Leading in receptions for LCHS were Rockey with 14 and Stephenson with 13. 

Next was McClain and Whiteoak, as McClain head coach Cierra Bolender gained her first win as a varsity head coach in her debut match at her alma mater. 

“It felt really good to get that first win, especially the first one out,” Bolender said. “The girls have been working really hard all summer, so to get the win under our belt as the first initial thing we’ve done together, it felt really good. 

“There were a lot of jitters across the board (Saturday) to get things started. We have a couple young players and a good group of seniors that have helped take over a leadership role with a new coach coming in. We have room to grow, and I told them nothing is perfect, and there is something we can always work on.

“Across the board we have a team that flows really well together. Our libero, Lillie [Saunders], is a great leader. Alaya Jackson had some really good swings for us, and we are going to see her presence grow a lot.”

The Lady Tigers and Lady ’Cats were tied twice in set one at 2-2 and 3-3, but MHS built their lead to 7-3 and then to 10-6 before having a seven-point advantage at 15-8. 

From there, MHS gained a 17-10 lead off an ace by Izzy Clevenger and later held a 19-11 lead after a serve by Adalynn Snyder. 

The first set continued as MHS stayed in front, eventually winning set one by seven points at 25-18. 

The second set against WHS was a dominant effort by the Lady Tigers, winning by 16 points at 25-9. Even with the double-digit win, the match was close early on with the score being tied five times up to an 8-8 score, as both teams held the lead. 

From there, MHS regained the lead at 9-8, then 10-8 off a point by Snyder. As the second set continued, MHS had points scored by Zoie Everhart, Shelby Wise and Anzli Beatty-Shoemaker pushed the Lady Tigers’ lead to 16-9. 

McClain continued to distance themselves on the scoreboard with the eventual win at 25-9 to move onto the finals. 

The Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs faced Whiteoak for third place in the best-of-three event, winning set one at 25-7. 

The first set was almost all Lynchburg-Clay, leading at one point by a 12-2 score, and later at 14-4. LCHS then built their lead to 16-6 and went on to score the final five points of the match for the 25-7 set one win. 

The second set between LCHS and WHS in their non-conference match was closer as LCHS held just a three point lead at 11-8, and later the score was 12-9. That said, LCHS kept the lead for the rest of the match winning by 11 points at 25-14. 

Against WHS, the Lady Mustangs were led in kills by Greene with seven, followed by Carraher with three. O’Connor totaled two, and with one kill each were McLaughlin, Stephenson and Magee. 

LCHS totaled 18 aces against Whiteoak with Greene serving four, while McLaughlin and Stephenson each had three. Rockey and O’Connor each finished with two aces, and with one was Shope. 

Magee finished with one block, and the digs leader was McLaughlin with four. Stephenson totaled three digs, as did Greene. With two digs each were Carraher, Shope and Vesey. Magee and O’Connor each had one dig. 

The assists leader was McLaughlin with 11, and Magee had one assist. Rockey led the Lady Mustangs with seven receptions. 

The finals of the event saw a rematch of the previous season as Hillsboro faced McClain, with HHS winning set one at 25-16. 

Early on the two rivals were tied at 3-3 in set one, but HHS went ahead with a serve by Pence and later took a 6-4 lead off a point by Seeling. From there, HHS had consecutive aces by Wagoner, but McClain answered with a point at the net by Alaya Jackson.

MHS cut Hillsboro’s lead to 9-7 with a point by Everhart, but again, the Lady Indians came back for a 14-8 lead as the 14th point was scored by Pence of HHS. 

An ace by Hillsboro’s Young and a point from Davis left the Lady Indians ahead by six points at 16-10. 

After an MHS timeout, HHS built a 22-14 lead, then a 23-14 lead when Roush scored a point off an ace. HHS won the first set at 25-16 by scoring the final three points. 

The second set was tied six times, with the final tied score at 12-12. Though HHS started with a 4-0 lead with the help of serves by Davis, MHS tied the score at 6-6 with a point by Jackson. 

After the score was tied at 12-12, the Lady Indians didn’t relinquish the lead for the remainder of the contest, as points scored by Wagoner lifted HHS ahead by a 21-15 lead. MHS made it a 25-16 score off a point by Snyder. 

HHS kept the pressure on and won set two by seven points, winning the Spike and Dig championship.