As if the temperature wasn’t already high enough in the air condition-less gym, the two student sections on hand made sure to crank up the heat even more.
Like a long rally, the student sections from Mountain View and Thompson Valley traded chants back and forth, each trying to one-up the other.
“You-can’t-do-that.”
“Fund-a-men-tals.”
“This-is-our-house.”
Down on the court, with their peers stomping and yelling just a few feet away, the Eagles and Mountain Lions found themselves in a battle that was as much mental as it was physical. The side that could handle the chaotic environment better would surely have an upper hand in the crosstown match.
Early on, it was the host Lions, who harnessed the energy of their home crowd to win a marathon of a first set. But as the night went on, the Eagles proved more capable of performing under pressure to earn a 3-1 victory over their rivals.
Coach Casey Holder’s team stayed red-hot in the process, extending the Eagles’ win streak to five to improve to 8-6 overall and 3-1 in conference play.
Thompson Valley junior Danielle Sobraske said it was the most fun she’s ever had in a match.
“It was crazy in here,” she said. “I couldn’t hear my own teammates it was so loud.”
Sobraske tallied nine kills while teammate Elease Marolf led all players with 15. Junior Kirsten Christensen added 10 kills and four aces for the Eagles, who were sloppy at the service line in the first set but settled down significantly after that.
The Eagles were unable to hold a six-point lead in the opening set as they saw the Lions rattle off a 6-0 run midway through, but they sharpened up the rest of the way to post a 27-29, 25-23, 25-17, 25-14 victory.
“The main thing was I think they had pre-game jitters, and just getting it out the first set and realizing the stands and environment is gonna be really loud and obnoxious,” Holder said. “Just shutting them out and not really paying attention so we can play our game. So just getting those pre-game jitters out and be like, ‘OK, now we can play Thompson Valley volleyball. Now let’s go show them who we are.'”
Calli Wilson paced the Lions (1-9, 0-4) with six kills to go with five each from Megan Hurr and Mia Carmosino. Hurr added seven blocks while Taylor Lenhart had 19 assists.
As a team, though, MVHS hit just .078 to provide plenty of help to a TVHS squad that doesn’t need any assistance with the way it’s playing right now.
“Unfortunately we made more errors on our side, so we just really need to clean that up and make sure that we’re making better choices instead of getting scared and freaking out and then forgetting everything that we’ve worked really hard on,” MVHS coach Rhiannon Tovani said. “Especially in these high-pressure situations, especially against Thompson Valley, because I know this is their rival and I know they were really looking forward to it. I think all that pressure, it clearly got to them tonight.”
The Lions were able to fight off match point twice in the first set before eventually rolling off three straight points for the dramatic Game 1 win. MVHS had a few solid runs in the middle and end of Set 2, but otherwise the Eagles were able to create a comfortable cushion.
“I felt like we played more as individuals, rather than a team. I feel like we’re improving more and more, but we just haven’t quite connected yet,” Wilson said. “At the beginning of the second set we were really pumped up and hyped, and then we kinda just slowly let it go. I don’t really know, just lost the team factor of it.”
Sean Star: sstar@reporter-herald.com or twitter.com/seanvstar
