Hillsboro volleyball sweeps 3 sets against Washington

HILLSBORO — Taking three sets to earn a Frontier Athletic Conference victory on Tuesday night, the Hillsboro Lady Indians defeated the Washington Lady Blue Lions en route to their eighth win of the ’25 season. 

Hillsboro defeated Washington at HHS by scores of 25-18, 25-15 and 25-17. 

“Coming back from the fair, the first game is always a little slow. The girls definitely played a little slow tonight, but it helped prepare us for Thursday when we play Jackson,” HHS head coach Heather Jones said. “The girls played better as the game went on, but there were times when we’d get the lead, then the girls would get too comfortable, and Washington came back a little bit. 

“The girls did get better from the first set to the third set. It was good to see the girls start out strong, which is something we’ve struggled with a lot, so I was glad to see the girls get out to the stronger starts in this game.”

The first set was possibly the most competitive of the three sets played, as HHS was back on the court for the first time in over a week as they had a break due to the Highland County Fair. In the first set on their return to the court, HHS and Washington tied three times at 1-1, 3-3 and 5-5, but Hillsboro took the lead for good at 6-5 when the Lady Blue Lions saw the ball land on their own side of the court. 

Hillsboro eventually built a lead of 12-6, and later they led 16-9. As the match continued, the Lady Indians led 19-12 following an ace by Riley Pence, forcing Washington to call a timeout. After the timeout, Washington scored the next two points, but an ace by Ryan Wagoner pushed Hillsboro’s lead to 21-14. 

From there, the two teams continued to compete, where eventually HHS won the set at 25-18. 

Set two for the Lady Indians saw them build a 7-0 lead to begin things with aces from Tylee Davis and points from Pence and Wagoner, as the seventh point was scored off a hit from Kayla Seeling. 

The HHS lead went to 9-1 with an ace by Seeling as Washington called a timeout. Hillsboro continued to add to their lead with a point scored by Pence following the break in the action, and from there the lead went to 13-1 with Hillsboro having a point by Marianne Mycroft and Seeling. 

When Hillsboro reached a 16-3 lead, it was from a play at the net by Davis, and then the HHS lead went to 17-7 after a few points were scored by Washington. From there, though, the Lady Indians and Washington each scored eight more points for the 25-15 set-two final score. 

HHS, again, began set three strong with a 4-0 lead, and then that lead went to 8-1. HHS then held an 11-7 advantage and from there didn’t lose the lead for the rest of the third set as they won by eight points at 25-17. 

Hillsboro totaled 37 kills, nine assists, one block, 38 digs, 31 assists and 34 service receptions. 

Davis was the leader in kills with 19, followed by Wagoner with 10. Also with kills were Pence (one), Seeling (two), Mycroft (one) and Emmalee Young (four). 

“Tylee had some good kills, and our passers and setters, we’d wouldn’t be able to do it without them,” Jones said. “Everyone did a good job tonight, but some of the kills Tylee had stood out, and she was adaptable to everything.”

Hillsboro had Wagoner and Seeling with three aces, while Davis totaled two and Pence had one. 

Mycroft collected the lone block for the Lady Indians, while the digs leader was Davis with 11. Also with digs were Macy Fauber (seven), Allie Roush (five), Seeling (five), Wagoner (four), Josie Rhoades (two), Young (two), Pence (one) and Mycroft (one).

Seeling led the way with 29 assists, and with one assist each were Davis and Rhoades. 

Wagoner was the team leader in service receptions with 12, followed by Roush (eight), Fauber (five), Davis (four), Rhoades (four) and Young (one). 

With the win, the Lady Indians now stand at 8-2 overall, and they are 1-2 in the FAC. Washington moves to 1-12 overall, and they are 0-3 in the FAC. 

Next for Hillsboro is an away FAC game against the Jackson Ironladies on Thursday, Sept. 11 at JHS. Jackson is 4-5 overall and 2-1 in the FAC.