By John Rittenhouse
Two long-time Tri-County Conference volleyball rivals met for a non-conference match in Ellsworth Monday.
Hills-Beaver Creek and Ellsworth, teams that spent a number of years playing each other twice a season in the disbanded T-CC, played against each other without league ramifications on the line.
The way things turned out, H-BC got the better of EHS by posting a 3-1 win over the Panthers on their home floor.
H-BC coach Curt Doornweerd said the Patriots didn't play their best match of the year, but he was happy with the outcome.
"We played good enough to win. A win is a win, and we have to take it," he said.
H-BC posted a comfortable 15-8 win in the opener before scrambling to pull out a 16-14 victory in Game 2.
Ellsworth was one point away from evening the match at one game each when it sported a 14-8 lead. H-BC, however, scored the next eight points to win by two.
The Panthers did force a fourth game by posting a 15-7 victory in Game 3. The fourth game went to H-BC by a 15-11 count.
Erin Boeve, who was 25 of 25 serving with two aces, led the 8-8-3 Patriots with 14 kills and eight blocks. Sarah Rozeboom and Angie Sjaarda recorded three and two kills respectively. Kelly Mulder had two blocks and one kill.
Melissa Fagerness was 23 of 23 serving with one ace for the winners. Melinda Sandstede was 13 of 14 with one ace.
Ellsworth, which slipped to 2-11-6 with the loss, received a 15-kill, 12-dig effort from Jenna Groen.
Laurel Drenth added 11 kills for the Panthers. Lisa Boltjes was 14 of 17 serving with four aces. Laci DeLeeuw charted 13 set assists.
Panther coach Jason Langland said the Panthers played with H-BC, but mistakes kept them from prevailing.
"It's just a matter of doing the little things we need to in order to win the game. We need to make more big plays," he said.