POTOSI — A few days after a back-and-forth loss at Highland dropped them into a first-place tie in the Six Rivers West, the Potosi Chieftains bounced back with a 3–1 victory over visiting River Ridge Thursday night.

Potosi (11–6, 6–1) shook off 11 combined hitting and service errors in the first set to rally for a 19–25, 25–19, 25–22, 25–14 Parent’s Night victory over the young Timberwolves (7–6–2, 2–5 SRW).

Sophomore Maddie Hawes and senior Liz Reuter powered the Potosi offense with 11 kills apiece. Reuter added three blocks and fellow senior Haley Flesch had a nice night setting, finishing with a match-high 33 assists.

“Mental mistakes and breakdowns, as well as missed serves were what caused the slow start for us in set 1,” said first-year Potosi head coach Mallory Mau. “I switched up the rotation a little bit in the second set to see if we could get a spark going and it worked for us. The girls pushed through and focused to get a win.”

Junior middle hitter Taylor Kennedy had the hot hand early on serving up seven straight points in the second set. She finished the night with five aces.

Hawes closed out the second set with three straight aces for Potosi.

Ridge rallied to tie the third set at 17–17 on an ace by sophomore Bridgett Myers, but the Chieftains scored eight of the final 13 points to close out the set.

Senior Paige Brinkman served an ace to stake Potosi to a 20–17 lead and closed out the set with a kill on game point.
The Chieftains dominated set four to claim the victory.

Last Tuesday Potosi held a two sets to one lead, but host Highland won the final two sets to pull out a 25–18, 19–25, 19–25, 25–17, 15–13 victory.

Highland improved to 5–2 in the Six Rivers West, while Potosi suffered its first league loss of the season.

“This was a tough one for our girls, but we learned a lot from this match and we had to move on quickly because we had another match two days away,” said Mau. “Highland had a lot of positive energy that helped them push through for the win.  They are a solid team and they had a good night against us.”

Highland 3, Potosi 2
(from Tuesday, Sept. 24 @ Highland)
Potosi    18    25    25    17    13
Highland    25    19    19    25    15
Potosi stat leaders
Kills: Taylor Kennedy 14, Liz Reuter 8, Paige Brinkman 8. Blocks: Kennedy 5, Haley Flesch 2. Assists: Haley Flesch 27. Aces: Maddie Hawes 2. Digs: Kennedy 12, Grace Friederick 8, Brinkman 7.

Potosi 3, River Ridge 1
(from Thursday, Sept. 26 @ Potosi)
River Ridge        25    19    22    14
Potosi        19    25    25    25
Potosi stat leaders
Kills: Maddie Hawes 11, Liz Reuter 11. Blocks: Liz Reuter 3. Assists: Haley Flesch 33. Aces: Taylor Kennedy 5. Digs: Grace Friederick 14, Taylor Kennedy 12.