Sidney Rallies For Win Against Gering

Sidney's Lady Raider volleyball team avenged a loss earlier in the season to the Gering by coming from behind to defeat the Lady Bulldogs in Sidney's last home match of the season Tuesday night.

After dropping the first set 12-to-25, the Lady Raiders fought back to take the next three sets 25-to-20, 28-to-26, and 27-to-25 for the victory.

The Lady Raiders started the the match slowly, and were unable to get themselves in a groove before the visiting Lady Bulldogs put them deep in a hole they could not recover from, losing the first set by the lopsided score of 12-to-25.

Sidney head coach Lu Howard got the girls together after the first set for a pep talk and to get them ready for the next set.

"I told the girls to take three deep breaths and treat the first set as a warm-up. I just wanted them to completely forget about that set and get focused," said Howard.

The second set started with Gering again starting hot, and moving out to a 4-to-0 lead quickly as Sidney still had difficulty hitting their shots and setting their plays. But after they had chipped away Gering's lead to 5-to-2, senior Mattie Johnson made a great diving save during a volley that seemed to ignite the rest of the team. Within minutes, the score moved from 5-to-2 in favor of Gering to 5-to-8 in the visitor's favor. Then, another spirited volley featuring another great save by sophomore Logan Holly brought the score to 6-to-8, then a few minutes later, the set was tied at 9 each. After Sidney took the lead 10-to-9, Gering called a time out to try and stop the Lady Raider's momentum.

Sidney never lost the lead in the set, and a tight battle ended in Sidney's favor with the home team taking the set 25-to-20 and evening the match at one set each. The next set was a back and forth battle until the set was tied at 11, and Sidney began to take control and broke out to an 18-to-14 lead. However, Gering fought back, and aided by a series of controversial calls, tied the set at 18.

"There was a call where there was some difference in interpretation as to what constitutes a block, and whether or not there was a double touch", explained coach Howard.

She continued, "Another call had one of our back row players step on the line, but the call was delayed, and there was a rule question over the timing of the call, which caused some confusion."

Being that it seemed points scored by Sidney were taken away and awarded to Gering, the large home crowd loudly voiced their displeasure. The Sidney girls were able to regroup, and battled back to tie the set at 23. The Lady Raiders then were able to win the set by a final score of 28-to-26, and take a 2 sets to 1 lead over Gering.

Sidney started the fourth set strong, jumping out to an 8-to-5 lead, but the Gering girls bore down and fought back, eventually tying the set at 16 and continuing to fight for points until the teams were tied at 25. Sidney then was able to rally to score two points in a row, ending the set with a 27-to-25 win, and a 3-to-1 match victory over the Lady Bulldogs. The Lady Raiders improved their record to 21-and-7 and next go on the road for tournament play at Sterling, Colo. on Saturday.