By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek fell out of the unbeaten ranks in Red Rock Conference volleyball play after taking a 3-1 loss from Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin in Mountain Lake Thursday.
The teams split the first two games of the match before the home-standing Wolverines emerged as the winner by taking Games 3 and 4.
Although H-BC slipped to 1-1 in the loop, Patriot coach Nicole Fey liked what she saw from her team.
"I think we broke out of our slump. We missed a couple of crucial serves; otherwise the match could have gone either way. I was really happy with the way our girls played," she said.
ML-B-O drew first blood in the match by securing a 15-6 win in Game 1, but the Patriots battled back to knot the score with a 15-11 victory in the second game.
The Wolverines controlled Game 3 by posting a 15-4 win.
Game 4, however, was a hard-fought battle. H-BC, which trailed 5-0 early, gained a 15-14 edge and served for game point a couple of times without success. ML-B-O rallied to notch a 19-17 win.
Erin Boeve recorded a team-high 17 kills and had 12 digs for the Patriots. Tonya Leenderts led the way with 13 digs while going 18 of 19 in serving and scoring 14 points.