| Lady
Pirates end regular season with win
The Prairie Lady Pirates ended their regular season with a win as they defeated Nezperce 25-19, 25-22, 14-25, 25-20 on senior night at Cottonwood Tuesday, Oct. 12. Seniors Briget Long, Lauren Merrill and Vanessa Sonnen were honored before the match along with their parents. Long had 10 kills in the match with Schaeffer scoring 9 kills while Lindsey Crea had 14 assists and Ashley Jackson had 10 assists. With the win Prairie ended their regular season with an 8-14 mark and a 6-7 league record, good for third place in the South Pod of the White Pine League. Nezperce won the JV match 20-25, 14-25, 12-15 and the C team lost to Grangeville. Lady Pirates ousted from District Tournament After nine straight trips to state, the Prairie Lady Pirates couldn’t make it 10 as they were ousted from District Tournament action after just 2 matches Saturday, Oct. 16 at Culdesac. Prairie was swept by Troy in their opening match 13-25, 20-25, 19-25 and then eliminated by a Nezperce team they’d beaten 4 days earlier, 18-25, 28-26, 15-25, 24-26. The Troy match started well as Lindsey Crea scored 2 aces for a 2-0 Prairie lead but Troy came back to take the lead at 3-5. 
Prairie led at 7-6 and after falling behind 7-8, tied the game at 8-8 but the rest of the game was all Troy. Prairie fell behind in the second 0-2 but thanks to 2 missed Troy serves and 3 aces, 1 by Bridget Enneking and 2 by Briget Long, Prairie came back to take a 5-4 lead. Troy tied the game at 5 but a kill by Natalie Arnzen, 2 aces by Ashley Jackson and a tip for a kill by Sarah Forsmann gave Prairie a 9-5 lead. Prairie was able to hold the lead until Troy tied it at 15. Troy then took the lead at 15-16 and Prairie never led again although they were able to tie the score at 16, 17 and 18. Troy then got a 4-ace run to pull away for the win. The third game saw Prairie fall behind early again but the Pirates came back to take an 8-6 lead when Troy missed a serve and Arnzen served up 2 aces. Troy came back though to finally take the lead for good at 12-13 and then built on the lead as they wound up sweeping the match in 3 games. For the match Long had 8 kills and 3 aces while Arnzen had 8 kills including a stuff plus 3 aces. Crea had 13 assists and 3 aces while Jackson had 7 assists, 2 kills and 2 aces. Against Nezperce, Prairie fell behind quickly 0-5 and never led in the opening game. Just when Prairie looked like they were getting back in the game at 5-7 Nezperce went on a 7 point run to open up a 5-14 lead.  Lauren
Merrill answered with a 4-point serving run as Prairie pulled back within
3 points at 12-15.
Prairie managed to close within 1 point at 17-18 after a pair of aces by Long. Unfortunately for the Pirates Nezperce closed out the game with a 1-7 run with 4 aces in those final 7 points. In the second game Prairie got off to the hot start as Long scored a kill for the first point then Randi Schumacher served 4 aces for a 5-0 Prairie lead. Nezperce came right back though to tie the score at 5-5 and eventually took an 8-11 lead. Arnzen got on a serving run with 3 aces along with a kill by Sarah Forsmann that put Prairie back on top at 12-11. Prairie led most of the rest of the game but couldn’t put away the Indians. Prairie led 18-12 and 23-18 only to see Nezperce fight back each time. The Indians fought back to a 24-24 tie after trailing 24-20. Prairie got another chance at game point when Crea tipped a ball over for a kill but a net foul tied the score again at 25-25. Nezperce then served up an ace for game point their way but Arnzen scored a kill to put herself on the service line. Ashley Schaeffer scored a kill and Arnzen served up an ace for the win. 
Game 3 was close at the start but Nezperce took control with a 5-point run that gave them a 6-point lead. Prairie was able to pull back within 2 at 13-15 only to see Nezperce pull away with a 2-10 finish. In the fourth game Nezperce took the early lead at 4-7 but Arnzen got on a roll serving with 3 straight aces after she and Jackson had scored kills for a 10-7 Prairie lead. Prairie led it 11-9 when Nezperce’s Amanda Riggers put together a 5-point run to put Nezperce ahead 11-15. Two kills each by Long and Arnzen and 2 aces by Long helped the Pirates pull back into a tie at 17-17. From that point on neither team could grab control as the score was tied again at 18, 19, 21, 22, 23 and 24. Nezperce led 23-24 when Long scored a kill but Nezperce answered with a kill and then an ace by Melinda Mizer as Nezperce won the match. Long had 20 kills including 3 stuffs plus 4 aces and 4 assists in the match while Arnzen had 16 kills and 9 aces. Crea had 25 assists, 2 kills and an ace while Jackson had 11 assists 4 kills and an ace. Schaeffer and Forsmann had 5 kills each while Schumacher had 5 aces. The loss ends Prairie’s season at 8-16. |
 |
