By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek volleyball players lost a chance to record their first win of the season when they traveled to Comfrey for a Red Rock Conference match Thursday.
The Patriots led 2-1 after winning the second and third games of the match, but Comfrey bounced back to win Game 4 and erased a six-point deficit to win 16-14 in the decisive fifth game.
H-BC coach Curt Doorneweerd was glad his team was in a position to win the match, but that doesn't erase the disappointment of losing a five-game tilt.
"I have mixed emotions, because you hate losing a close match like that," he said. "The girls played hard and never gave up. We just made a couple of mental mistakes that let Comfrey back in the match. We couldn't shut the door on them."
After dropping Game 1 15-9, H-BC pulled out a 15-12 win in Game 2 before coasting to a 15-6 victory in the third game to gain position for a possible match win.
Comfrey battled back to post a 15-8 win in the fourth game to force a fifth and deciding tilt.
The Patriots appeared to be in good position when they opened a 12-6 advantage in the finale. The Rockets, however, went on an 8-1 run to gain a 14-13 edge before the Patriots knotted the score at 14. Comfrey then scored the final two points to lock up a 16-14 victory.
Erin Boeve dominated the meet by recording 16 kills and seven blocks for H-BC. Angie Sjaarda added five kills, and Kelly Mulder chipped in five blocks and three kills.
Cassi Tilstra completed all six of her serves and registered three kills. Sarah Rozeboom and Jody Rentschler charted two and three kills respectively.