Volleyball

Lady Devils come from behind to beat Green River
Clinch state tournament berth

By KURT RIZMAN Herald Sports Editor
Published: October 16th, 2009, Uinta County Herald, Page 11

After dropping the first two games to Green River on Wednesday, the Lady Devils rebounded and won the last three games to win the match and claim a berth in the 4A state volleyball tournament .
"In the beginning, we didn't play so great. It was deja vu from the first two times we played Green River," Evanston coach Tera Lawlar said.
The Lady Devils won 23-25 , 20-25 , 25-20 , 25-12 , 15-12 . "In the first game we battled. It was a sideout game. We were going pointfor-point ," Lawlar said. "We felt like Green River was dictating, though. We were playing at their pace." Lawlar said the first game got off to an atypical start. After the first nine points, Evanston's standout senior Erin Kirby had yet to touch the ball. She had only touched the ball three times in the first 17 points. "We only lost by two, so we felt pretty okay," Lawlar said. "We knew our team could do more and we wanted the girls to snap out of it." The second game went even worse for the Lady Devils.
Evanston got down 11-1 early in the game before rebounding to lose the game by five points.
"Nothing was working for us. The kids didn't fold. They played hard. Things just weren't working and Green River seemed perfect," Lawlar said. "We turned things around (in the game) and that gave us some hope. There seemed to be so much more effort on our side. We did a good job battling back after spotting them 10 or 11 points."
Assistant coach Matt Petersen gave the girls a pep talk after the second game.
"He said, 'We're going five. We're going five.' He gave them that edge of confidence. It was huge for us," Lawlar said. "We went out looking more confident . He totally redirected any kind of doubt we had after the first two games. We felt like we had control. After that, we dictated the game and speed."
The Lady Devils used that to win the third game 25-20 .
"The kids realized they had to fight harder and Green River thought things were going too easy. From game one our blocking was on, but it really picked up in game three," Lawlar said. "Our passing got better. Green River started to tip more. In the first two games their tips landed for kills, but we made some subtle defensive changes. We picked up the tips and were able to attack back at them," she added. Kirby led the Lady Devils with 12 solo blocks. Kelsi Thornock and Lauren Thomas each had seven solo blocks. Lawlar said game four was the opposite of game two, with Evanston dominating and winning 25-12 . "We knew we had to go out hard in game five. Our girls were embarrassed in game two and we rebounded in game three," Lawlar said. "We did that to them in game four, so we knew they could turn it around in game five." Evanston got ahead 6-1 in the fifth game. Green River crept closer 7-3 , 10-7 , 12-11 . Lawlar called a timeout and then Green River missed a serve. Lawlar said she wasn't sure what happened on the last couple points because she couldn't watch. The Lady Devils won the game 15-12 to win the match and become regular season conference champions. "We pulled it off," Lawlar said. "We're conference champions and that's exciting. We're going to state and that's a great feeling. That hasn't happened for a long time."
The Lady Devils only graduated one senior from last year's team that went 3-7 in conference. Evanston is 8-1 in conference . The Lady Devils played their final regular season conference match Thursday after our press time.
"It's amazing to have a team that couldn't qualify for state last year earn a bye. It's really neat for them to go from 3-7 to turn around and win conference, a tough conference," Lawlar said. "The girls wrote on the board at practice Wednesday 'We're not done yet, girls.' The kids had a hard time enjoying the win because they're not done yet. I told them to enjoy it that night and we'd get back to work (Wednesday)."
As a team, Evanston knocked down 54 kills and only made 12 hitting errors.
"I'll take that for the rest of the season, especially against a team like Green River," Lawlar said.
Kirby led the team with 24 of those kills. Thornock had 15 kills and Katie Thomas added nine. Jessica Chandler served five aces and made no service errors. Chandler also had 20 assists, while Abbey Ehlers had 23 assists.
Bernie Gutierrez led the defense with 15 digs and Alyssa Hagstrom came up with 14 digs.