Lady Indians earn 3

HILLSBORO — For three consecutive sets, the Hillsboro Lady Indians defended their home court in their Frontier Athletic Conference contest Tuesday night, defeating the visiting Washington Lady Blue Lions in sweeping fashion for their first FAC win of the ’23 season.

In what was the FAC opener for the Lady Indians, they won the match with set scores of 25-18, 25-20 and 25-13.

“I saw a lot of leadership and we were able to get them some minutes, and our team really worked well to include them in the game,” HHS head coach Jordan Walker said. “On varsity we have two seniors, Cora Akers, a stud outside middle hitter, and Halle Reveal, who is killing it in the back row right now, working hard.”

Hillsboro and Washington battled close in the first set as the score was tied early at 2-2, and later, after other various tied scores, HHS and Washington were tied at 16-16.

In between, the two teams battled with HHS having a block at the front of the net by Camryn Spruell, breaking a 5-5 tie to put Hillsboro in the lead.

Washington later tied the score at 7-7, and after a short lead by the visitors, Hillsboro tied the score at 8-8 with a point by Addison Huff.

HHS built a three-point lead with the help of serves from Cora Akers and then led by a 13-9 score, but Washington continued to keep pace with HHS, as the score was tied at 14-14, until Hillsboro’s Tylee Davis put the Lady Indians back in front by a point.

After HHS hit the ball out of play, leaving the score tied at 15, HHS once again regained the lead with a point by Huff, and like before, the Lady Blue Lions tied the score at 16.

From that point on, though, Hillsboro took the lead for good at 17-16 and didn’t look back as they continued to add to their point total, with Akers eventually scoring the final point for the Lady Indians for the 25-18 set-one win.

Set two was closer in the final score, as HHS defeated Washington 25-20, but it was tied just twice early on at 1-1 and 2-2, and after HHS took a 3-2 lead with a point by Davis, Hillsboro didn’t trail for the rest of the set.

Akers had an ace for a 5-2 HHS advantage, and later Davis had a kill for a score of 8-5. Huff, Kayla Seeling and Huff again made the score 12-7 off points scored, forcing Washington to call a timeout.

Later, a play at the net by Spruell and a point from Akers left the Lady Indians ahead at 14-8.

When HHS led 18-14, two important digs from Allie Roush kept the play continuing for the Lady Indians, and later a point scored by Delaina Southworth left HHS in front at 22-14.

Hillsboro’s 24th point was scored by Spruell, and she eventually ended the set with the 25th point for the Lady Indians with a kill for a 25-20 set-two win.

In set three of the FAC battle, there were three early tied scores of 1-1, 3-3 and 4-4, as Hillsboro had help in the scoring from Ryan Wagoner and Davis. The HHS lead was 6-4 following a serve from Halle Reveal.

Huff put Hillsboro ahead 13-8 as the set continued following an ace, and Wagoner had Hillsboro in front 15-8 with a kill.

Following multiple serves by Akers where points were scored by Hillsboro, the third set and match ended with a kill from Spruell for the 25-13 set-three win and 3-0 match win.

“The serves by Cora at the end were big for us,” Walker said. “It is still early in the season, but I’m glad to see our team running more quicks, so I want to see more of that.

“I’m so excited. We have such a good group. They are all such sweet kids. They are picking up and learning a lot since we’ve started.”

The win improves Hillsboro to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in the FAC. Washington moves to 1-4 overall, 0-1 in the FAC.

Next for Hillsboro is a FAC game on the road on Thursday, Aug. 31 against the Jackson Ironladies.

(A photo gallery will be added to this article.)