Hills-Beaver Creek senior Angie Bush has a tip blocked at the net by a Fulda player during Tuesday's volleyball match in Hills.
By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek volleyball team opened the 2002 campaign by hosting Red Rock Conference foe Fulda in Hills Tuesday.
The Patriots and Raiders shared fifth place in the RRC last season, but it was Fulda who gained the early advantage in the league standings this year by sweeping a three-game match from the hosts.
H-BC is a young team that made some errors in the opener, but first-year coach Curt Doorneweerd was happy with the effort he witnessed from the bench.
"It went better than I thought it would," he said. "The girls played hard. We just made some little mistakes that we, hopefully, can take care of before our next match."
Fulda raced to a 7-1 lead in Game 1 of the clash before H-BC went on a 7-1 surge featuring a four-point service run by Angie Sjaarda to trail 8-7.
The Raiders led 10-8 after Patriot Erin Boeve served an ace, but Fulda scored the next five points to ice a 15-8 win.
Fulda led 6-0 in Game 2 before H-BC went on a 7-0 run featuring two service points from Boeve, one kill by Sarah Rozeboom, two points and an ace serve by Angie Bush and a kill from Kelly Mulder to take a 7-6 advantage.
Fulda, however, scored the next six points and outscored the Patriots 9-3 the rest of the game to prevail by a 15-10 margin.
Sjaarda served a point early in Game 3 to slice an early Fulda advantage to two points (3-1), but the Raiders went on an 8-0 run moments later to take an 11-1 lead.
The score was 12-3 when Brittney Rozeboom served a pair of aces, Boeve added a pair of points and Sarah Rozeboom added a point and a kill to bring H-BC within three points (12-9) of the Raiders. Fulda then scored the next three points to cap a 15-9 victory.
Boeve had a big night for H-BC by recording 12 kills, seven blocks and two ace serves. Sarah Rozeboom and Jody Rentschler registered six and four kills respectively, while Mulder added four kills and one block.
Doorneweerd said Bush and Brittney Rozeboom, who served a pair of aces each, handled their setting duties well during the match.
The 0-1 Patriots host Central Lyon Tuesday.