Craig Daily Press

After Moffat County snapped Steamboat's 16-year winning streak in Craig on Sept. 26, Sailors coach Wendy Hall wrote down Tuesday's date in her team's locker room as a reminder for her girls to fix in their minds.

"There was a little extra motivation with the streak," Hall said. "I wrote the date on the board and said it needs to be in the back of their minds, thinking about evening the score every day."

In what Hall thought was her team's most focused and determined effort of the year, Steamboat beat a Moffat team that was unable to match the energy of the teams' previous meeting in four games, 25-20, 23-25, 25-22, 25-18.

With both teams coming into the game at 5-6 in league with two games remaining, both against league-leading Battle Mountain and the talented Eagle Valley squad, Steamboat's Kelly Meek Gymnasium was buzzing not only with the understood tension of the game's crucial importance for district qualification, but also with the largest crowd Steamboat has seen this year.

With bleachers packed with Sailors and Bulldogs fans opposing one another, Steamboat jumped to an early lead with a pair of kills from Natalie Nichols, but Moffat got back in the game with the blocking of Amy Dilldine. Down 20-14, Moffat closed the gap again, capitalizing on a few Steamboat serving errors and a kill from Dilldine, but Steamboat closed out the game with an Erin Gleason kill followed by a Lizzie Stoll ace.

In game two, Moffat turned things around, again coming from behind to tie the game at 12-12 on a Markie Workman kill and with blocking help from Dilldine. The Bulldogs led the game until Steamboat brought it to a 23-23 tie on a block and kill from Gleason. Workman set up Moffat's victory on a tipped kill to seal its one win of the night.

"That second game was the team I know," Moffat coach Brianna Montgomery said, crediting the amazing 30 digs Angie Charchalis scrapped for in the back row and Dilldine's 7 kills and 9 blocks and Workman's 7 kills and 5 blocks.

Moffat began losing its momentum in the third game, where, after keeping the game close with an 18-point tie, began to lose the blocking battle as Steamboat's Katy Gary turned up her hitting with five kills in the third game, leading her team with 14 on the night.

"Our blocking in the first two games was great, then it went downhill," said Bulldogs' Shaylyn Kawcak. "Our serve-receive was off and we weren't reading where their serves were going when they played them short."

Game four was the night's most lopsided game. Dilldine's trio of kills and the Moffat fans protest of a series of close officiated calls could do nothing to prevent the Bulldogs' miscues or to match Steamboat's more balanced and consistent play.

"We gave it what we could, but we kind of gave up," Moffat's MacKenzie Maneotis said. "We're kind of that team where when you get down, it's hard to get back up."

Now at 5-7 in league, Moffat will have to find a way to recover from the demoralizing loss, needing to win one of its next two games to hope to qualify for districts -- starting with its 6 p.m. home game on Thursday against Eagle Valley.