By Dan Barile
Eagle Times Correspondent
LANGDON, NH — The Fall Mountain Wildcats girls volleyball team picked up a hotly contested 3-0 win over Mascoma Valley on Tuesday, Sept. 26.
After winning the first set by doubles digits, the final two sets were tied at 24 before the Wildcats clawed their way to victory in front of an excited crowd on homecoming night.
Mascoma held a 7-6 lead in the first set before Fall Mountain reeled off 9 straight points. The support of the crowd reverberated throughout the gym as the Wildcats continued their strong play and went on to win the first set, 25-14.
Jumping to the lead, Mascoma pushed an 18-11 upset in the second set before Fall Mountain began to rally. Fall Mountain scored the next 6 points and then overtook Mascoma as they gained a 24-21 lead. Mascoma wouldn’t go away easily though as they recorded 3 straight points and forced the Wildcats to call timeout. Fall Mountain scored back-to-back points coming out of the timeout to win the set, 26-24.
The third set was another back-and-forth thriller. Fall Mountain raced out to a 5-1 lead before Mascoma went on a prolonged run to take a 21-12 lead. The Wildcats would rally again to retake a 24-23 lead. With the game on the line, Mascoma successfully spiked the ball to tie the set at 24. The decibel level in the gym continued to rise as the teams traded points until Fall Mountain finally pulled out the win by a score of 28-26.
Fall Mountain Coach Missie Swift emphasized how well her team adapted to some lineup changes in the win.
“This was the middle game of three consecutive days of play for us. With no time to really practice it, we made a fairly big lineup change coming into this game because we knew something had to change,” Swift said. “We asked our libero, Cora Buswell, to help with the setting. This allowed us to spread some coverage responsibilities to other people and manage our defense a bit better. The kids adjusted to it perfectly and it worked out very well.”
Buswell had 7 assists from the setters’ position, along with 11 points, 2 aces, and 4 digs. Jordyn Cheney added 13 points, 2 aces, 4 assists and 2 digs, Maebel Dussault had 10 points, 2 aces, and 3 kills, and Eden Haynes recorded 4 points, 3 aces, 5 kills and 5 digs.
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