Blackfoot — Head coach Lorin Lilya is still trying to teach his young team, full of juniors, how to win games and how to finish.

    The Blackfoot Indians (3-6) took a step towards that goal beating the Preston Indians  25-21, 21-25, 25-20, 25-22 at Chris L. Gardner gymnasium in Blackfoot Wednesday night.

    Last week against Skyline, Lilya felt his Broncos struggled to maintain focus in key moments. While they are still not perfect, the players have made progress.

    “The girls are focusing and fighting through those things now, instead of stopping and letting five, six point runs happen,” he said.

    In the first set, Blackfoot had built a six point lead late, but Preston rallied to within two at 23-21 before the Broncos squeezed out the win.

    The momentum the Indians built late into the first set carried over to the second.

    “We were more aggressive defensively and on our serve-receives,” said Preston head coach Bridgett Knapp, who is in her first year leading the Indians.

    At that point, the Indians carried all the momentum, and they played like it in the third set, building 17-11 lead.

    After a Blackfoot time-out, the Broncos went on an eight to two run.

    “Our serving tonight was tough,” Lilya said. “That was one of the key points. We knew if we could go at them at the outside, ... we could take them out of their hitting game. And that worked really well.”

    In the pivotal third set, the Blackfoot girls proved to their coach that they could indeed finish strong, winning the final four points.

    For the deciding and final game, Preston and Blackfoot continued to battle, but it was timely hitting from the Broncos that proved the difference.

    “(Tianna Anderson) got in and she did great off the bench,” Lilya said. “She had a slow start. ... Sometimes I have to get her a little angry. She really gets into the game, gets rolling and she does really well.”

    Anderson had three straight kills — all right-handed and from the left side of the net — that reversed a one point deficit early and was enough to help propel Blackfoot to clinch the fourth set.

    The Broncos travels to play in the Skyline Invite this Friday.

    Preston (0-3) plays in Logan, Utah, Tuesday.  

    We’re hoping that’s the game we can get our first win on,” Knapp said. ... “We’re getting closer. We just have to get over that hump.”