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The Helena volleyball team swept Chilton County on Tuesday, Aug. 31 to begin area play with an impressive win. (For the Reporter/Larry Dancy)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor 

HELENA – Following a difficult schedule and start to the season, the Helena Huskies’ volleyball team was looking to turn a new page when area play kicked off on Tuesday, Aug. 31.

Taking on Chilton County, the Huskies put together one of their most dominant performances of the season in a sweep against the Tigers to pick up their third win of the season and begin area play with a winning record.

It marked the second sweep in three matches by Helena, who won 3-0 against Central High School a few days earlier on Saturday, Aug. 28.

That combined with matchups against some of the state’s top talent early in the season helped the Huskies carry confidence into the opening area match against the Tigers and it showed throughout the match.

In the opening set, Helena was tested throughout and actually fell behind 14-6 early in the set.

However, the Huskies bounced back with four consecutive points to get within four points of the lead.

After back-and-forth play that saw neither team win multiple points in a row, Helena eventually came back with a late rally.

The Huskies trailed 21-17, but put together seven consecutive points to take a 24-21 lead. After giving it back to Chilton County, the Tigers lost the very next point to help Helena pick up a 25-22 win in the set.

From there, the Huskies didn’t flirt with a loss the rest of the night.

After turning momentum in their favor at the end of the first set, they came out and one multiple points from the first three at the service line, eventually jumping out to a 12-5 lead early in the set.

Chilton County never could string together more than two points on serve, which allowed Helena to pull away this time for an easy 25-12 victory.

Now up 2-0, the Huskies were a set away from closing out the area match, while the Tigers were in need of three consecutive set victories.

In the final set, Helena won at least two points on every serve to put together another dominant effort. The Huskies stormed out to a 9-2 lead before then putting together a 5-0 run to take a 14-4 advantage.

From there, the Tigers made a slight run to cut the deficit back to six points, but that’s as close as they got the rest of the way.

Helena won 11 of the next 13 points to win the final set 25-10 and the match 3-0.

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