Haylee Paladini of Fallon, right, leaps to block a shot against Lowry.
Earlier in the week, Fallon coach Patty Daum acknowledged Lowry as one of the teams to beat in the Northern Division 1-A, knowing that a win for their first home match wouldn’t be easy.
Despite a formidably close match, Lowry remains an obstacle for the varsity team to overcome.
Though Lowry took the first set 25-18, the Wave rallied for the second match when they found their groove with in-bounds spiking and a tireless blocking effort, nearly flipping the score at 25-19.
For the Lady Wave in the first two sets, senior Megan McCormick was consistent as an in-bounds server throughout the match, which was considerable since several out-of-bounds serves and blocks led to many throw-away points against Lowry.
The third set raised tension when Lowry pulled out from behind the Wave to win the set 26-24, where Lady Bucks’ senior Juliana Velasco landed the bulk of her streak of kills,with 10 in total by the end of the match.
In the fourth set, both teams rallied with the most back-and-forth scoring of the match, and Wave junior Whitney Skabelund kept the game at the net when the Lady Wave were strongest, achieving the most solo-blocks (7) of the match for her team.
Neither Lowry nor the Wave let up on in-bound kills until they found themselves tied at 22 and the Wave blockers at the net lost essential points due to out-of-bounds blocking.
Even with Lowry’s persistence at the net, the Lady Wave managed to battle to a close finish, 25-23 with Lowry winning the third set to take the match.
The Lady Wave will be competing at Galena today, and their next home math against South Tahoe on Saturday.