By Coach Sharon Lemburg

On Halloween Night, the Falcons won against Bishop to tie the High Desert League championship. In the first meet at Bishop—just two weeks prior—the Falcons lost in a very close five-game match.

The match on Halloween was also close, but the Falcons dominated in four games.

In the first game, the Falcons just couldn’t get on top of the Broncos. They lost 20-25. The second game was close all the way through to 17-17; then the Falcons moved ahead 20-18, 22-19, 23-21, 24-24, to finish the set 26-24.

That was a real close one, but that game gave the Falcons the idea that it was possible to beat their toughest rivals. The third set was similar, back and forth until Falcons prevailed with 25-22.

With a two-to-one game lead, our home team recalled they were fighting for league championship. They entered the fourth game determined to win.

Rachel Rivette started with her serves to push the Falcons ahead 5-1. The front row lineup was tough with Alex Kern shutting their big hitter down. The second server was Heather Henderson, who served nine points straight to take the score up to 15-1, with four aces and tough serves. In the front line were Maxie Rosales using strategy to find holes and get kills. Alexa Fausto and Elliana Shillig blocked the Broncos’ big hitter. The team rally racked up points until the Falcons shut the Broncos down completely. From there it was just point by point until the Falcons returned back around to Henderson’s serve. She aced the Broncos again to finish with a kill by Maxie Rosales. The final score on the fourth game was 25-11,  a very decisive win for the Falcons.

Leading the Falcon team with kills was Alex Kern with eleven, Maxie Rosales with ten, Rachel Rivette with nine, Heather Henderson with eight, Elliana Shillig with five, and Alexa Fausto with two.

Our team was well rounded. We were able to find someone who could score a kill in every position. Assists were coming from Henderson with 18, Jillian Carlson with 16, and Shillig with five.

The defense was awesome, picking up difficult balls from the Broncos big hitters. Rivette picked up 19 digs, Henderson picked up 28, and Pivetti picked up 26. Serve receives were handled mainly by Pivetti with 21, Rivette with 19, and Henderson with 11. The Falcon blocking team was lead by Kern with three, Alexa Fausto with three single blocks and two assist blocks, Henderson had two blocks, and Shillig had one block. This was one of our best blocking games with a total of eleven blocks for kills. The Falcons’ team play was champion quality. After the first game it was hard to find a fault with the Falcons’ play.

This win puts the Falcons and Bishop tied for first place in the High Desert League with a 5-1 record. The Falcons still need to play Rosamond on Tuesday and California City on Thursday to finish the league. Bishop will need to match up with Kern Valley and Rosamond.

This has been a tough season, but we are far from being finished, as the Central Section playoffs will begin in a week. Stay posted for games and results.

Remember that Thursday, Nov. 7,  is home against California City and this will be senior night. You don’t want to miss this game. On Friday, Nov. 8, the Alumni will return to play the Falcon JV team at 5 p.m. and the varsity at 6:30 p.m. Come out to support your teams!

Photographer Cliff Coleman said play was so vigorous and the win so emotional that he cried right along with the team.

This is part of the November 8, 2013 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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