The Eureka girls took care of business with a crucial win over Del Norte on Tuesday night to set up a huge championship-deciding showdown on Thursday.
Also in Pacific League action on Tuesday, the Fortuna Huskies got their first league win and achieved it in dominating fashion.
The Loggers welcomed Del Norte to Jay Willard Gymnasium and won in four sets, 25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 25-14, improving to 4-1 in league play.
The victory keeps the pressure on league leaders Arcata (4-0), which had a bye on Tuesday.
The two schools will face off at Eureka on Thursday night in a match that will likely decide this year’s championship.
The Huskies also enjoyed a big night on Tuesday when they hosted McKinleyville, posting their first league win in straight sets by a score of 25-18, 25-21, 25-21.
Tiarah Maualuga had a huge night for Eureka, and if she continues to play at this level the remainder of the way the Loggers will be tough to stop.
The dominating senior team captain finished with 21 kills, six blocks and three aces.
“Del Norte was super scrappy. They were just digging everything,” Eureka head coach Stephanie Napoleon said. “But I’m proud of our girls. They kept pushing.”
In addition to Maualuga’s big night, fellow senior Alena Battle also had a good game, finishing with nine kills and a pair of blocks.
Ramona Dusel added 16 assists, three kills and two aces, while Violla Kingsang added 21 assists and three aces and Eddy Hale had a team-high 22 digs.
The home crowd also played its part in a match the Loggers simply had to have, and Napoleon is hoping to see a lot of home support for Thursday’s big showdown.
“Want to give a shout out to the crowd for showing up,” Napoleon said. “They gave our girls that extra needed energy. We need them all to show up Thursday.”
Unfortunately, once again no stats were available for the Warriors, who dropped to 2-3 in league play and saw any hopes of a championship slip away.
Coaches are encouraged to forward stats to Humboldt Sports if they would like their players included in our roundups.
The Eureka JVs and freshmen also won their games against Del Norte on Tuesday night.
At Fortuna, meanwhile, a pair of freshmen led the offense.
Temperance Torrez finished with a team-high eight kills, while Drew Sturdevant added seven kills.
While it’s been a challenging season in terms of wins and loses for a young Huskies team that features six freshmen, head coach Jacqueline Maschmeier is seeing improvement from the players, something that was evident in Tuesday’s breakthrough win.
“I’m proud of our team, they played like a team tonight,” Maschmeier said. “We’ve had a rough run the past few games, but we went to Sacramento for the CIVT tournament playing some really good teams and our girls battled there, unlocked some skills we’ve been working on in practice and it really showed at tonight’s game.”
Ava Dill and Reagan Pascasci each added four kills in the win, while Sturdevant had a good night serving the ball, finishing with five aces.
Another freshman, Bailey Henderson, added four aces.
Defensively, senior Addie Collenberg led a balanced team performance with 11 digs, while Quincy Sundberg added nine digs and Peyton Shelton had six.
Henderson also finished with a team-high 15 assists, while Eva Bess had 12.
The win avenged an earlier league loss to McKinleyville.
The Panthers were playing without their starting setter and head coach Ashley Washburn had to switch some things around.
“Fortuna played a cleaner and more controlled game more consistently than us last night,” Washburn said. “Despite the loss, I’m still proud of my junior setters for stepping up to the plate and running our offense.”
Both teams are now 1-4 in league play.
