By Brandon Sumrall | Special to the Advertiser
In a volleyball match that took all five sets to decide, the Thorsby Rebels escaped with a hard fought road win on Oct. 10 over the Billingsley Bears (25-10; 25-20; 22-25; 14-25; 15-13).

With the Bears choosing to sit their usual starters through the first set of the match, the Rebels jumped out to a commanding early lead behind three aces from Kaitlyn Lowery to take a 7-0 lead.

That lead grew to nine behind the serving of Lauren Reeser, and then further to 12 thanks to Lindsey Burnett.

With Thorsby sporting a 24-10 lead, a ball hit out of bounds by the Bears gave the Rebels a 25-10 first set win.

Billingsley opted to reinstate their starters for set two, a decision that resulted in the competition becoming much more competitive.

With the teams playing through a 5-all tie, Thorsby took an early lead behind the serving of Kaylee Ray and later extended that lead to four behind Carlee Wyatt.

The four-point Thorsby lead remained in tact until a two-point swing by the Bears made the score 18-16 in favor of the Rebels.

An ace by Lowery and a kill by Reeser aided in a four-point run that led Thorsby to a second set win, 25-20.

While the competition remained the same to start the third set, it was the Bears that jumped out to the early lead thanks to a pair of aces from Katelyn Powell and a kill by Spencer Simpson.

The slim lead stayed in favor of the Bears until serving duties where handed over to Cameron Lockhart, who led a three-point Thorsby run that gave the Rebels a 12-11 lead.

The lead was short lived however; as with the score tied at 13, a six-point run led by Simpson put the Bears out in front 19-13.

The six-point lead proved to be less than enough to put the Rebels away, as Thorsby battled back to tie the set at 20-all.

The score remained knotted at 22, a pair of points in favor of Billingsley led to a set-ending kill by Simpson to give the Bears a 25-22 win.

The Bears jumped out to an early lead in the fourth set thanks to the serving of Natalee Zaner, but once again the Rebels battled back to cut that lead to one at 5-4, thanks to the serving from Lockhart.

Not to be outdone, the Bears answered with a three-point run behind Powell to make the score 8-4 in favor of Billingsley.

Thorsby again cut the Bears lead to one.

However, the Bears maintained the lead and put the Rebels away on a five-point run that gave Billingsley the win in set four, 25-14.

A match-deciding fifth set swung in favor of the Rebels early thanks to a four-point run behind the serving of Lockhart, but a three-point run by the Bears later tied the set at 9-all.

With neither team able to take control of the set and the score tied at 13, a point in favor of the Rebels gave Thorsby a one-point lead and set up a match-winning ace by Reeser that gave the Rebels a 15-13 set win, and a 3-2 match win.

Wyatt led the Rebels with 14 kills, four digs and two aces, while Reeser added seven kills, five aces and two digs.

Simpson led the Bears with 13 kills and four aces, while Zaner added 11 kills and five aces.