Photos by Ray Hamill/HuymboldtSports.com – The Eureka players react during Wednesday’ night’s game against Arcata.

Fasten your seatbelts, the race for this year’s Big 5 championship in volleyball looks like it could be an exciting one.

Conference play began on Wednesday, when the Eureka Loggers hosted the Arcata Tigers in a thrilling night of action and an intense back-and-forth showdown.

And when the dust had settled, it was the home team that walked away victorious, rallying from a 2-1 deficit to win in five sets, 20-25, 25-20, 15-25, 25-20 and 15-11.

“They kept fighting, never gave up and picked each other up,” Eureka head coach Stephanie Napoleon said.

This was a statement win over the defending champs by a program that has watched Arcata and Del Norte dominate the conference in recent years and has not won a Big 5 title since 2018.

The win also ended a six-game losing streak to the Tigers, including five straight in conference play, a run that had dated back three years to Sept. 2022.

But this is a deep Eureka team that appears well up to the challenge of ending that wait for a championship this year in what is expected to be a three-horse race, along with an always dangerous Del Norte program.

“This is a real cohesive group,” Napoleon said. “They play as a team and have all that hunger to win.

“It’s such a fun team to coach. All 12 are able to come in and bring it.”

The loss was obviously a disappointing one for the defending champs, but there’s a long way to go before this year’s championship will be decided and it’s a race that is likely to see plenty of twists and turns.

And all they have to do is remember what happened a year ago, when the same Tigers lost early in conference play before responding with six straight wins on the way to capturing the Big 5 crown.

In a matchup between the two biggest schools in the H-DNL, both teams appeared up for the challenge on Wednesday.

The Tigers started stronger and took the opening set, but a determined home team responded well and quickly evened things up with a hard-fought second-set win.

The Arcata players were equally determined. They responded themselves with a 10-point win in set No. 3 and appeared to be heading towards a seventh straight victory over their conference rivals.

Once again, however, the Eureka players dug deep to pull even again, and they would carry that momentum into the deciding set.

“We struggled with consistency tonight and had more errors than we usually do,” Arcata head coach Laurie Griffith said. “Eureka also had amazing defense, which stymied us when we did take good swings.”

The always dangerous Tiara Muaaluga led the way for the Loggers and recorded a game-high 18 kills, along with six digs, four blocks and an ace.

Alena Battle also impressed for the home team and added seven kills and seven blocks, while Macy Secor finished with five blocks, 11 digs and three aces.

Eddy Hale added 24 digs, Ramona Dusel had 14 assists, four aces and three kills, and Violla Kingsang had nine assists.

Kyla Kinyon led the Tigers with 12 kills, while Pearl Smith added 10 kills and Nora Brumbaugh finished with eight.

Arcata’s Harper Appy helped set her teammates up for success and finished with 35 assists.

Things won’t get any easier for the Arcata girls with another key matchup against Del Norte in their conference home opener on Tuesday night, while the Loggers will try to keep the momentum going when they host McKinleyville, also on Tuesday night.

Before that, the Arcata JVs will host a tournament this weekend, with 16 teams involved, including eight of the H-DNL teams.

The Tigers won Tuesday’s JV matchup against Eureka.