Wildcats maul Miners in rivalry game
Photo by Jeff Green/ Kellogg's Sam Bryant meets Wallace's Maggie Howard at net for a block during Kellogg's recent win over Wallace.
WALLACE –– The Kellogg Wildcats held serve over the Wallace Miners as they quickly dispatched their Silver Valley foes in three sets (26-24, 25-6, and 25-13) at Kirby Krulitz Court.
The Wildcats struggled out of the gate as the Miners fed off the home crowd energy, but Kellogg would rally late and pull off the win in the first set.
The way the first set ended seemed to set the tone for the rest of the match as the Miners couldn't seem to get back into any sort of groove and the Wildcats only allowed 19 points over the next two sets on their way to the big win.
Wildcat freshman Grace Nearing set the tone from the Wildcats, especially in set two when she opened the game up from the service line with 11 straight points.
“Grace was big for us tonight,” coach Stephanie Brunner said following the win. “She and Shaylynn Durham played very well for us tonight.”
The Wildcats were looking for their first win of the season and they got it in a match where they addressed several of the areas where they were struggling.
“We tried to do a lot of things that we had been working on, especially some of our specialty sets,” Brunner said. “We hit better tonight than we have all season so that was a positive for us. We are getting there, but we still have a long way to go. We need to start really trusting each other.”
The Wildcats will be on the road this weekend at the Lakeland Tournament and the Miners will be at home on Tuesday when they host Kootenai at 6 p.m.