Lady Raiders Suffer Heartbreaking Loss to Open Season

STERLING CO - In a thrilling volleyball match, the Sidney Lady Raiders suffered a heartbreaking loss in their season opener in Sterling as the Tigers survived a five-set battle in a sweltering Wally Pot Gymnasium at Sterling High School.

The match began with Sidney struggling to handle the Tigers serves. Sterling used six ace serves to take the first set convincingly, winning 25-13. However, Sidney quickly bounced back, winning the second set 25-17. The third set saw the Tigers regain their momentum, taking it 25-18. The fourth set was fiercely contested, but Sidney managed to edge Sterling by scoring the last four points of the set to stay alive with a 25-22 win, leveling the match at two sets each.

The fifth and deciding set started with Sidney building a promising 11-4 lead. It seemed like they were on the brink of victory. However, Sterling mounted an impressive comeback with a 10-3 run to tie the match at 14-14. The intensity grew as the teams battled to ties at 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21. Each team had five match points during this thrilling set.

In the end, the Tigers improved to 3-0 on the season with a 25-13, 17-25, 25-18, 22-25, 23-21 win.

Sidney struggled with their serving most of the match, committing a total of 13 serving errors, 5 of them occurring in the crucial fifth set. Karsyn Leeling led the Lady Raiders with 21 kills.

The Lady Raiders are back on the court Saturday for another road match at Yuma Colorado. Freshman game will begin at 11:00 a.m. followed by the Junior Varsity at 12:00 p.m. The Varsity match is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.