RV fell behind early to faith trailing 13-6 in the first game. But a strong rally brought the score back to two points at 13-11 and eventually the Mustangs stole the lead 15-14. Faith regained the lead once at 18-17 but RV finished the game 8-3 to win the first game 25-21.

Faith came back to dominate the second game where they went on a 8-0 run to take the lead 23-12 and eventually won the game 25-17. Then the fun began. In the third game Ralston Valley lead for the majority of the game. They lead by as much as 5 with a 12-7 lead. But Faith had a strong push and tied it at 16, then took the lead 19-18. RV could not get the lead back and lost to Faith again 25-22.

The most exciting and heartbreaking game was to follow. RV came out firing taking an 8-2 and 10-3 lead. But they couldn’t hold on as Faith tied it at eleven on an 8-1 rally. RV tried to hold on but faith took the lead for the first time at 17-16. Faith never trailed from that point on. When Faith got to game point the score was 24-21. Head coach Lisa Nelson called timeout and the Mustangs responded with two straight points and they needed one more to extend the game. But Faith pulled out the win defeating the Mustangs 25-23 in the fourth game.

RV had lots of chances but outstanding defense from Faith was a weapon that the Mustangs had no answer for.

“Faith is pretty dang good,” Coach Lisa Nelson said. “They have a great Libero and their setter is very dynamic. But we didn’t do what we needed to do on our side of the net. One of our plans was not to hit to their Libero but we had a tendency to hit it to her an awful lot last night.”

RV got a stellar performance from setter Dominique Montijo who had at least two dozen assists.

“She played very well,” Nelson said. “She has really improved since last year.”

But it just wasn’t enough as the nerves started to kick in when the points became more critical.

“When you play scared in any sport especially in volleyball it shows, you have a tendency to play a little flat footed when you’re scared or nervous,” Nelson said.

Side Note

Two transfers from Faith Janel Gibeau and Hanna Gibeau were unable to play against their former school as they have to miss the first half of the season. Their presence would have made a big difference in the game last night.