The opening week of Northeast “A” League volleyball play saw the Deer Park Lady Stags take a pair of four-set triumphs. Following a league opening win on the road at Colville, the young (no seniors) but experienced squad under second-year head coach Kimmie Brazington played for the first time in front of the home crowd a night later in a rare Wednesday contest.
Riverside visited for the first Battle Of The Horns volleyball edition, and the visitors started quickly taking leads of 6-0 and 13-4.
A pair of aces by Kali Vio and two Madi Ellingsen kills helped close the gap to 13-10. Vio’s serve would continue to be difficult for the Rams to handle as the junior strung together four more aces in her next service rotation, which ended with the home side leading 18-14 as momentum changed its color from red to blue. Strong play at the net by returning all league performer Camryn Chapman and Kolbie Collier closed out a 25-19 first set win.
As slow as the start to the opening set was, the second set saw Deer Park flip the script, having leads of 6-1 and 10-3. Riverside would use a 6-0 run to close within a pair at 15-13 before a 10-5 closing run capped a 25-18 set two victory.
The sluggish start returned in set three as Riverside scored the first ten tallies. Following a surge by the Lady Stags to get within six at 12-6, the Rams pushed the margin to 14 at 22-8 and closed out set three 25-15.
Set four was a back and forth affair, with both sides enjoying advantages early. Trailing 11-10, Chapman recorded one of her match leading 18 kills and an off speed tip shot that found the floor with an Emma Brownell ace in between for a 14-11 advantage. Chapman, showing her explosive all league form, terminated two more rallies with kills in a march to a 19-14 home side lead. The closing run would end up being a 15-4 tally as Deer Park took set four 25-15 and the match 3-1.
