Down But Not Out: Boyd-Buchanan Shocks Grace

The Grace Academy Lady Golden Eagles traveled to Boyd-Buchanan two weeks ago and won a key District 5-A volleyball match without much problem as Lady Buc senior Asia Kirkman had to watch from the sidelines as she nursed a hamstring injury.

The results were a little different the second time around on Thursday night at Grace.

With Kirkman back to full strength and seemingly in the middle of every critical play, the Lady Bucs got even with a 3-2 victory as they improved to 18-10 overall and 8-2 in district play.

The win for Boyd-Buchanan did a great job of spoiling Senior Night for Grace and it took some of the power away from the moment in the fourth set when Grace senior Claire McMasters recorded her 1,000th career kill.

Other Grace seniors who were recognized before the match began included Josie Fulgham and twins Lexie and Miriam Horne.

The Lady Golden Eagles won the first two sets by scores of 25-20 and 27-25 before the Lady Bucs won the last three by scores of 25-16, 25-17 and 15-7.

"Having our leader back meant everything to us, but the whole team stepped up and played well tonight," said Boyd-Buchanan coach Alfie Dodd shortly after the match ended.

"That's a really good team that we just beat, but we played aggressive and showed what we're capable of doing.  We didn't hold back, but it's nice to see what we can doing as we head to tournament play.

"Asia had a great match, but our setters did a nice job of getting the ball to her," he said in praise of Sarah Emrey and Meredith Balthrop, who had 28 and 14 assists, respectively.

"But this just shows what we can do when we play up to our potential.  Our defense was strong all day as we made some key blocks at key times, but that was a fun match for me to watch," Dodd smiled.

Kirkman is a 17-year-old senior who may be one of the shortest players on the court at 5-4, but she can jump like someone who is 6-4 and her overall play seemed to spark the rest of her teammates.

"This was my first match back, so it's a big win for me in that regard, but this is also my last time to play in this gym," Kirkman said following the match after recording 21 kills to go along with 15 digs.

"It was really tough to watch when they beat us at our place, but I just tried to step up and give my team what we needed to win," she added.

Six straight service points by southpaw Maggie Long allowed Grace to build an 8-2 lead early in the first set as the Lady Bucs never regained the lead.

The Lady Golden Eagles controlled the tempo most of the second set and enjoyed its biggest lead of 18-12.  That's when the Lady Bucs started clicking as they scored nine of the next 12 points to knot the score at 21-21.

Boyd-Buchanan got to set point at 24-22 following a kill from Erin Syring, but Grace scored five of the final six points to win by two, the last two points coming with kills from McMasters.

 Grace had played well up to this point, but it appeared that the girls in maroon started playing more lot to lose than to win and it ended up costing them the match.

McMasters finally got her monumental kill in the fourth set on a shot from the right side that skipped across the net to give Grace a 11-10 lead.

Two straight hitting errors allowed the Lady Bucs to take the lead at 12-11 while kills from Kirkman stretched the lead to 14-11 and 15-12.  Grace got within a point at 15-14, but never any closer as the Lady Bucs evened the score with the 25-17 win.

The Lady Bucs then kept right on rolling as they scored four of the first five points in the fifth set.

The difference was 10-5 when Grace called its first timeout and 12-6 a minute later when they called their second, but by this time, nothing could be done to change the outcome and the match ended shortly afterward on a block from sophomore Mackenzie Mann.

"We relaxed way too much after winning those first two sets as we thought we had the match in the bag, but it cost us," said Grace coach Hillary Waters a few minutes later.

"We were all excited about it being Senior Night and the fact that Claire was about to get her 1,000th kill.  We rode that energy for a while, but Boyd-Buchanan wasn't about to back down.  I guess we thought we could just win one of the last three sets, but we should have known better.

"There were times when we didn't play our best volleyball, but I felt like we fought really hard and never gave up.  I just hope that we learned a lesson from this," Waters added.

Kirkman finished with 21 kills and 15 digs to spark the Lady Bucs.  Abbie Sewell had 28 digs while Emrey had that same number of assists.  Balthrop finished with 14 assists and 13 digs.

McMasters finished with a triple-double, including 13 kills, 17 digs and 10 blocks.  She now has 1,002 kills for her career.

Lexie Horne had 30 assists while twin sister Miriam was credited with 33 digs.  Alex Smith followed with 15 kills, 17 digs and five aces, despite not playing her best.

Boyd-Buchanan will be at home on Monday and Tuesday for matches with East Ridge and Central while they'll wrap up the regular season at Chattanooga Christian next Thursday.

 BOYD-BUCHANAN STATS:

Abbie Sewell -- 28 digs, 2 aces

Sarah Emrey -- 10 digs, 5 kills, 28 assists, 7.5 blocks, 2 aces

Kensley Parker -- 5 digs, 3 kills, 1.5 blocks

Asia Kirkman -- 15 digs, 21 kills, 2 assists, 1 block, 3 aces

Erin Syring -- 1 dig, 5 kills, 1 block, 4 aces

Maddie Van Eaton -- 9 digs, 1 kill, 3 aces

Meredith Balthrop -- 13 digs, 4 kills, 14 assists, 1 block, 1 ace

Mackenzie Mann -- 2 digs, 7 kills, 2 blocks.

GRACE STATS:

Claire McMasters -- 13 kills, 1 ace, 17 digs, 10 blocks

Lexie Horne -- 2 kills, 1 ace, 3 digs, 30 assists

Miriam Horne -- 33 digs

Josie Fulgham -- 2 digs

Alex Smith -- 15 kills, 5 aces, 17 digs, 2 blocks

Summer Dean -- 1 kill, 2 aces, 2 digs

Maggie Long -- 1 kill, 3 aces, 31 digs

Autumn Parrott -- 1 kill, 1 dig, 1 block.

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)