Highland gets 15 kills from Chloee Leslie, beats Thunder Ridge in straight sets
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POCATELLO — Neither team held a comfortable advantage in any individual set but when the dust settled at Highland High School Thursday night, the Rams were on top claiming a senior night straight-set victory over Thunder Ridge.
Highland (15-15-1, 3-4) entered the match third in the 6A High Country Conference, but overtook the Titans (13-9, 2-4) with the victory, winning 27-25, 25-23, 25-23.
After the match, Rams head coach Tana Homer called the victory “big time,” explaining that the team has endure some injuries and made some lineup tweaks of late to create more advantageous rotations. Dealing with that adversity and winning on the home floor, for senior night, she said, provided an abundance of positives with the playoff beginning next week.
“It was like all the good things were going our way,” Homer said.
Highland jumped out to a quick start, behind senior Chloee Leslie, who tallied three quick kills out of the gate. But the Titans answered right back, going on a run to pull ahead. And that was the story for much of the night — Highland runs were answered by Thunder Ridge runs and vice versa.
Homer, who spent much of the night standing courtside encouraging her team, said that she was constantly trying to decide how to help regain momentum, whether it was timeouts or substitutions. But, she insisted, she wasn’t as nervous as she looked.
“You do whatever you can. But I actually felt really calm and had a lot of confidence in my team, that we would be OK,” she said.
One of the reasons Homer was able to keep calm was because she had Leslie on the court, though that wasn’t a guarantee. According to the 6-foot-1 senior, she partially dislocated her swinging shoulder less than a week ago and was playing at less-than-100%.
Despite the pain, though, Leslie said she was more than willing to give her maximum effort to help secure the senior night victory.
“Oh yeah, I’m going to do my job. I’m taking care of every ball that I can,” she said.
Leslie finished with a match-high 15 kills to go with one service ace.
Homer said that she had long known Leslie was capable of dominating a game the way she did Thursday.
“She can control a game, and that’s what I’ve been trying to tell her all year, is that she can control a game. Now she’s getting that confidence to where she believes she can,” the coach said, adding that this is the perfect time for her most impactful attacker to reach that apex level, with the playoffs approaching.
“That’s the goal, pique at the right time,” Homer added.
After exchanging set points with Thunder Ridge, the Rams did eventually claim the first set. And though it wasn’t as drawn out — needing multiple deuce points — they did the same in the second set, scoring the final two points to win, 25-23.
Highland appeared to be in control of the third set, pushing to an 11-7 lead. But the Titans put together its best run of the night, scoring seven straight points to take a 14-11 lead and forcing a Homer timeout.
True to the form of the night, the Rams answered with three straight point of their own to tie the game. And they finished the night, matching another three-point run from Thunder Ridge, by scoring the final three points of the night.
The Titans were led by sophomore Giulia Johns, who finished the match with eight kills and a service ace.
Highland, who relied primarily on Leslie’s attack, were bolstered by a stellar efforts from blockers Sophia Apostle, Arianna Williams and Andee Matthews — who contributed four blocks apiece.
Asked about the performance of her block, Homer responded:
“Heck freaking yeah. I’m so proud of them.”
She went on to explain how an effective block is incredibly useful in a match like Thursday’s, when her team is looking to stem the tides of a run.
Thunder Ridge will close out its season with conference matches at Canyon Ridge then at home against Rigby.
Highland has a pair of tough opponents left in Pocatello and undefeated Madison.
Leslie joined her team in a celebration after the game, but said she would not do so for long before getting back to the grindstone.
“It’s going to be a battle,” she said of her team’s path nest week and into the playoffs. “The three teams: us, Rigby, Thunder (Ridge), we’re all pretty evenly matched — and then Canyon Ridge. … It’s a fight between Rigby, Thunder (Ridge) and us, we’ve just got to pull through. … Gotta keep working hard and staying on business.”