Mission volleyball wins five-game thriller against former

district foe

TROY - The Mission volleyball team faced an old "friend" last Saturday, making the trip up to Troy to battle a team that used to be in the same district as them. Old habits die hard, and the Lady Bulldogs found themselves gutting out a 3-2 victory (25-14, 25-14, 11-25, 24-26, 15-5).

"It's an interesting rivalry," Mission head coach Kendal Anderson said. "We either play really well against them or completely fall apart. During the third and fourth game of the match we stopped talking on the court and completely shut down."

Mission is no stranger to a five-game match. In their first action of the season, they went the distance against Charlo but came away with a loss. That wasn't the case this time.

"We did much better this time than against Charlo," Anderson said. "It usually comes down to whoever comes out the strongest and we definitely had that. I also changed my rotation in this match to the one we've had the most luck scoring in. That seemed to help."

The Lady Bulldogs showed plenty of energy, which after a long bus ride to Troy is surprising.

"You would think it would be a factor [the trip up to

Troy] but it doesn't seem to be," Anderson said. "In fact, the girls we're having a dance party in the locker room before the game to pump themselves up."

Mission jumped out to a 2-0 lead by winning handily 25-14, 25-14 but ran into some trouble after that.

"It was our own breakdown," Anderson said. "We weren't passing well and were making very silly mental mistakes."

Troy won the next two to force a game five, but the Lady Bulldogs came through in the clutch by winning the final game in convincing fashion.

"I was so happy that they pulled that one out," Anderson said. "They came out strong and never looked back."

Mission had 23 service aces in the game with Ashley Courville claiming six of those.

"They were serving really well and Troy's passing game wasn't up to par which helped with the aces," Anderson

said.

Jen Larsson led the team in kills with eight, and Sydney Allard had 15 digs.

"I think the girls played much more like a team this week," Anderson said.

Mission will host Eureka this Saturday.