Warriors smash Tigers in 3 games

Junior Brilynn Welch of Del Norte High gets ready to hit the ball in a match against Arcata in Crescent City Tuesday night. The Daily Triplicate/Bryant Anderson

After falling to Fortuna on Thursday to lose a Big 5 Conference game for the first time since 2005, the Warriors played with a desire missing in their last game to win in their first conference home contest of the year. The Warriors downed the Tigers 25-21, 25-15, 25-21.

Warrior co-coach Debbie Lorenzi said it was encouraging to see the team bounce back and play with “spirit, intensity and desire.”

The squad did  all this without a player that Lorenzi said was “our team leader and captain”—senior Katie Rinkevicz.

After returning from an ACL injury to one of her knees that occurred last volleyball season, she reinjured that knee during practice on Friday and is out for the rest of the volleyball season.

Her teammates stepped up  and were able to come away with a convincing win to improve to 2-1 in the conference and 11-10 overall and still be in the thick of winning their 21st straight Big 5 title. 

Junior Brilynn Welch had 11 digs, while junior Vanessa Alexandre finished with 16 assists and one ace.

Senior Lexie Nelson had two aces and eight kills. Senior Paula Rhodes had nine digs, 13 assists and 11 kills.

Kristyn Rook had four kills and Caitlin O’Reilley finished with seven digs.

The Warriors came out pumped up in front of the home crowd and were ready to have a good first game back after not playing a home game in nearly a month.

While the Tigers hung with them the Warriors were able to pull away for the game one win.

The second game saw the Warriors at their sharpest as they raced out to a 6-1 lead and did not look back, giving the Tigers very little chance to do much as the team seemed to be in sync with itself on its way to the 10-point win.

In the third game Del Norte took a commanding 20-10 lead and looked well on their way to winning the contest.

But they allowed the Tigers to get right back in the game and were up only 22-20 at one point before they pulled away for the victory.

In the junior varsity game the Warriors downed the Tigers 11-25, 25-22, 15-9.