VOLLEYBALL: Lady Indians grab first home win

With a 25-21, 14-25, 25-15 victory over Carterville on Tuesday night, the Lady Indians secured their first home win and first Southern Illinois River-to-River Conference Mississippi Division win of the 2014 season, scoring the last six points of the match to close it out strong.

After Carterville dominated the bulk of the second set, DHS rallied to take a 17-7 lead in the third. The Lady Lions refused to go quietly, coming back to within four at 19-15, but Du Quoin was not to be denied and shut the door there for their second win of the season.

"I think we're finally starting to see them come together, play with confidence, and know that they can win," said DHS head coach Jo C. Dill. "That second game we had a bad start, but the girls came back out in that third game and played they're butts off. They played their hearts out and everything went right for them in terms of being aggressive in their hitting, we were back row attacking, we were passing well, we were digging well. We finally did all those things together."

The Lady Indians totaled sixteen kills as a team with Kenzie Jackson and Hope Fenton both finishing with four apiece. Grace Haney added three kills, Alaina Caldwell and Afton Robinson each had two. Caldwell led assists with five, and Grace Haney had five service aces with Jordyn Bullar pitching in with three aces of her own.

"I have to give credit to my setter, Alaina (Caldwell)," Dill said. "A lot of times setters don't get the credit that they deserve, and the way that she runs our offense, she really keeps middles from knowing where the ball is going to go, so our hitters end up with no blocker. Our passers were doing what they needed to, Alaina ran the offense to perfection, and the hitters got the job done. It was a good win, it felt nice."

Defensively, Amanda Atteberry finished with a team-high twelve digs, followed closely by Taylor Gates' ten.

Another conference foe awaits the Lady Indians on Thursday when they travel to Pinckneyville.