Lady Trojans win at home opener
Staff writer
Hillsboro High School Lady Trojans sealed their first victory of the season Tuesday with a win against Haven in the newly renovated Robert C. Brown Gymnasium.
At 10:47 p.m., the matches were over and the Lady Trojans came away with six games under their belts, winning both matches.
"It was a very long night," said head coach Collette Burton. "It is still too early to tell whether or not rally scoring works. We need time to get used to it."
Burton said she would be interested in finding out how the other teams around the league did in experimenting with rally play.
In each match the teams had to go to a fifth game that was played to 15, according to rally scoring rules.
Hillsboro won the first match, 11-21, 22-20, 20-22, 21-18, 15-10.
In the first game of the first match, the Lady Trojans came out a little jittery and were not successful at the serve receive end.
"We really started out slow," Burton said. "We did not have much intensity."
The team managed to regroup and come back to defeat the Wildcats in the second game in a close match. They lost the third game.
"Elise Matz and Charity Davis did a good job digging the ball and reading the hit," Burton said.
Davis had 12 digs in the first match, Burton said.
Hillsboro came back to win the fourth game forcing the Wildcats to a fifth game.
"I felt we needed to play at our level and not go down," said Burton.
In the second match Hillsboro took an early lead, but Haven managed to come from behind and win the first and second games 21-13, 21-16.
In the third game, the Lady Trojans exploded and began connecting on their serves and won 21-15.
"Haven did not do much moving, and their momentum dropped down," said Burton.
Hillsboro continued to serve and hit well and won the fourth game, 21-17, forcing the match to again go to a fifth game. The team won 15-8 in that final game.
"I was proud of girls in the way they fought back," Burton said. "Our hitting didn't come around until the last two games."
Burton said that the team needs to improve on passing the ball up to the target. She said she knows it will come with time, but the team also needs to improve on reading the court and the ball.
The team will play Saturday at the Centre tournament. Game time is 9 a.m.
"Getting the wins on Tuesday and being seeded number two in the tournament will help build the team's confidence," she said.
The team also will play Sept. 17 at Lyons.
