Chelsea bounces back in area play with sweep of Helena

Published 2:04 pm Monday, September 16, 2024

By Andrew Simonson

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

CHELSEA – Both the Chelsea Hornets and Helena Huskies fell short in their first area matches of the season on Tuesday, Sept. 10, which brought even more stakes to their showdown on Thursday, Sept. 12 at Chelsea High School.

In the end, the Hornets got their first win in Class 6A, Area 8 with a 3-0 sweep of the Huskies to regain momentum in the area standings.

While Chelsea took each of the three sets, Helena made the hosts work for those victories early on.

The first set went down to the wire, and the Hornets had just a one-point cushion while on set point. Chelsea held off the pressure from the Huskies and took the set 25-23.

Once the teams moved on to the second set, it became clear that the match would still be close. This time around, the Hornets went to extra points with Helena to decide the set.

Chelsea locked in late once again and won both of the extra points to take the 26-24 win and go up 2-0 in the match.

From there, the Hornets used the momentum from the two tight wins to pull away to seal the sweep.

Chelsea established a comfortable lead and used it to take the 25-16 win in the third set, clinching their first area victory in the process.

Lauren Buchanan led the Chelsea offense with 22 kills and also had 10 digs and two aces. Alexis Rudolph earned 12 kills and Presley Durham and Lila Willett each had five kills. Cara Belcher secured 38 assists and 16 digs and Reagan Sartin earned eight digs.

Chelsea is now 1-1 in area play and will face Spain Park on the road on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m. in hopes of winning back-to-back area matches.

As for Helena, it will face rival Pelham in its next area match, which will also be on the road on Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.

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