North Nodaway's struggling volleyball program may have found a light at the end of the tunnel. The varsity has been having another long year, falling to 1-5 for the year. But the youngsters provided some spark to the program, rallying from a one set deficit to take their match 23-25, 25-21, 15-10 Monday.
The junior high came out with a lot of energy in the early going. A kill and an ace from Piper Smith helped put the Mustangs in front early in the first set at 12-6. But then South Harrison fought back and tied it up at 13, and then took an 18-16 lead. Aces from Mya Hansen tied it at 18, and four straight points capped off by two aces from Lily Blane tied it again at 23, but South Harrison scored the last two points to get the win.
The Mustangs fell behind again in the second set by as much as 9-4. A kill by Killa Miller got the Mustangs the ball back down 10-7, and then Lily Blane took over the game, refusing to let her team lose, getting three straight aces to tie it back up again at 10-1-. The game was tied at 11 before kills by Laney Turner and Miller put the Mustangs in from 14-12. An ace from Piper Smith made it 16-12.
South Harrison fought back to tie it at 16, but then Mya Hansen put the team on her shoulders, getting three straight aces after North Nodaway got the ball back on a sideout, make it 20-16. She was constantly taking charge out there, making everyone around her better. South Harrison fought back to within 21-20, but Lily Blane's turn came back around and she got an ace to make it 23-20. The teams exchanged bad serves, but then Blane got the final point to give North Nodaway the second set.
Piper Molloy threatened to take over for South Harrison, getting three straight aces to put the purple shirts up 4-3 after North Nodaway had scored the first three of the decisive set, but then Mya Hansen got a kill and then a sixth grader, Eliza Clements, stepped up and got two straight aces after an errant South Harrison hit went out of bounds, and North Nodaway led 7-4.
South Harrison cut it to 7-5, but after a bad serve, another sixth grader, Arianna Peaches, stepped up and served three straight aces to make it 11-5; the first was a perfect that that hit the top of the net and caromed over. The Bulldogs made a late run, but kills from Lily Blane and Taccoa Moyer meant that the Mustangs were still in front 13-10. Finally, Lily Blane and Halie Young got kills at the end to seal the third game.
The varsity game went from bad to worse as North Nodaway was intimidated by the 6'5" Marie Cookson. North Nodaway had every reason to expect a good game as South Harrison came in at 1-4, the same as North Nodaway, and the Mustangs had beaten them the last couple of years. But they were intimidated by Cookson, who ran wild over the Mustangs, knocking down hits in the middle at will, and was hammering down aces when she was in the back row. Lauren Herndon was a rare bright spot in the game as she knocked down several outside hits. The Mustangs fell 16-25, 7-25, 12-25 to fall to 1-5.
The junior varsity started off more of the same as they dropped the first set 10-25. But all of a sudden, they realized that Cookson was not on the floor and they could play ball with them. It started off with a freshman, Lacy Riley, who was all over the floor, coming out of nowhere to keep possessions alive; she had some early kills. The back row came up big as a pair of sophomores, Amy Richards and Gabby Harper, made several hustle plays to keep possessions alive and each had a kill from the back row returning a serve. With the game tied 10-10, Addalea Barcus stepped up and got a kill and then three straight aces after Harper's kill to make it 15-10. South Harrison made a late run, but a pair of kills from Andrea Jenkins kept the Mustangs in front. Finally, Jenkins stepped up to serve, and the purple shirts could not handle her hard serves, and she got an ace to clinch it 25-21.
No comments:
Post a Comment