As the final play of the 2017 Battle of the Hills came to a close, the Rangers had fought their way to second place in the tournament. The team was able to scrape by the Eastern lineup, but fell to the beastly blockers of Northern.

The third and final varsity match was between none other than the rivals of Central and Northern. While the student sections cheered and taunted one another, it was an entirely different match. Northern shut down FHC, the former champions of this tournament, throughout the second game, winning the game 25-15. The majority of hits coming from Central went straight back at them after smashing into the arms of the height-filled Huskies lineup, giving them a bigger and bigger deficit. Despite the close competition at the beginning of the match, the Huskies continuous nipping at the Rangers made them unable to stand any longer.

With a somewhat closer score of 25-18, game one of the second match was no different than the first; Northern’s front row was continually dominating the net, giving the Rangers a tough loss.

The first match of the night was against the Eastern Hawks. The Rangers were barely able to shoot down the Hawks in a close series of games. The opening game for the Rangers ended with a close loss of 25-23, giving Eastern varsity their first game win of the night. Although the Central hitters were rather successful in the game, their unusually faulty serving put them on their heels. With back and forth scoring from both sides later in the game, it came down to the very end. Earlier in the game, Central obtained a huge scoring spree of 7, putting them back in the lead, 14-10 from 7-10 after Eastern got a similar run. When the final hit came crashing to the ground, Central just barley slid past FHE, 26-24 in game one.

Nearing the end of the second, and potentially the final game of the series, the Rangers had a one point lead, 23-22. As they sent the ball over the net, Eastern mishandled it and hit the ball four times — a crucial point for the girls in green. Earlier in the game, the Hawks managed to go on a four point run, forcing Shields to use her final timeout. The first of which was used when they blew a 7-2 lead, giving their opponent six points to put them ahead by one early in the game. The Rangers eventually dropped the game to the Hawks late.

When the third and final game was over, the Rangers came out on top 15-8. After being taunted by the Hawks before the match, the ladies were determined and fueled to get the win. They were able to go on a five point scoring rally late in the game, forcing Eastern to take two timeouts to stop the momentum, but their efforts never came to fruition. Similar to the final match against Northern, the game was rather close at the start, but Eastern was unable to keep their composure in the end, this time giving the Rangers the slight edge and a 2-1 victory.