Hillsboro wins first set; Miami Trace takes FAC match in 4 sets

HILLSBORO — The Hillsboro Lady Indians faced a tough opponent when hosting the Miami Trace Lady Panthers Thursday evening at Hillsboro High School. Even though HHS won the first set, the Lady Panthers rallied to win the next three sets in the Frontier Athletic Conference match to defeat the Lady Indians. 

HHS won the first set at 25-17, but MTHS won the next three by scores of 25-15, 25-19, and 25-21 to seal the FAC win over Hillsboro. 

“The girls are playing very strong this year, and we are very proud of them, but it comes down to everybody wanting it all at the same time during the set, and we just can’t get it all together at once. The girls try and work hard, but once we get it all together, they’ll figure it out,” HHS head coach Heather Jones said. 

In the set won by Hillsboro, they started off 3-0 lead, but eventually the score was tied at 4-4. HHS took the lead with the help from senior Ryan Wagoner. Hillsboro and Miami Trace later were tied by a 9-9 score following a hit made by MT senior Kylie Yeazel. MTHS took the lead by an 11-9 score, and later at 13-10, but this time Hillsboro battled back to force what was a 15-15 tied score. 

Hillsboro regained the lead when MTHS hit the ball on their own side of the net, as the Lady Indians eventually led 21-17 with MTHS calling a timeout. HHS led the rest of the first set at 25-17 with points scored off serves by senior Scarlett Perkins. 

The second set saw the Lady Indians jump out to a 3-0 lead, and they led until the score was tied at 5-5. Miami Trace took a 6-5 lead and didn’t trail for the rest of the set, as they tied the set score at 1-1 with a set two win of 25-15. 

In the third set, the score was tied six times from 1-1 to 13-13. MTHS broke the tied score for a 14-13 lead and, again, didn’t trail for the rest of the third set to gain the 25-19 win. HHS did battle to get the score to within two points at 21-19 with a point scored at the front row of the net off a hit by Wagoner. 

Miami Trace (2-0, 4-2) answered by scoring the next four points to seal the set-three win, taking a team set lead of 2-1. 

The fourth set was close with tied scores of 1, 3, 4, 9, 10, 13, 15, 16 and 17. MTHS broke the tied score off a successful serve, and from there MTHS outscored HHS 8-4 to gain the fourth set win and overall match win. 

Hillsboro totaled 32 kills, 30 assists, 11 aces, 61 digs and two blocks in the FAC loss. Wagoner led HHS with 13 kills, plus she added 10 digs. Senior Tylee Davis totaled six kills, two assists, one ace and a team-high 17 digs. 

Sophomore Macy Fauber finished with 11 digs, two assists and two aces. Teammate, senior Marianne Mycroft totaled two kills and a block. 

“Macy is our libero, and she stepped up tonight,” Jones said. “When she is on, that girl can dig up every single ball. Typically we only have her in one rotation in the back row, but the last set I changed up some things and she was on the back court the whole time and I think that was a chance for us tonight to get things back together. She is always cheering on the team, and being aggressive, and she stood out tonight and I was very proud of her.”

Also for Hillsboro, junior Riley Pence ended the match with three kills and four digs. Perkins had three kills, seven assists, four aces, five digs and a block. 

Hillsboro senior Josie Rhoades had final totals of two aces and five digs. Hillsboro sophomore Emmalee Young had five kills, a team-high 18 assists, two aces and nine digs.

HHS now has a FAC record of 1-1 with an overall record of 6-2 this season.

Hillsboro next is scheduled to play on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at home against the Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers (2-0, 4-3) at 6:30 p.m. 

“Fair break is here, and a lot of the girls will be away. We take a little bit of a breather, but as soon as we get back we are going really hard. The girls obviously want to work hard, we have six seniors and they have a huge goal they set at the beginning of the yer, and we are going to try to make it happen,” Jones said. “We are always going to stay aggressive, and our goal is to always compete with Miami Trace, and we were able to do that tonight. We want to be able to keep doing that, to grow and to be better.”