A big fourth-set lead was just what Soddy-Daisy needed to finally finish off East Hamilton in a hard-fought volleyball match on Tuesday.
The Lady Trojans, making a string of unforced errors after building a commanding 12-point lead, had to battle to fend off the Lady Hurricanes and close out the District 5-3A contest with a 3-1 victory at East Hamilton School.
The scores were 25-21, 26-28, 26-24 and 25-21.
“Late in the fourth set we let some points get away from us,” Soddy-Daisy’s Cameren Swafford said. “We had like nine or 10 straight errors and got a little frazzled. We finally picked it up, got back to fundamentals and were able to get out of that rut.”
Following a 7-0 run, Soddy-Daisy (15-21, 3-4 in the district) had a 23-11 lead in the final set.
Nailing down the last two points proved difficult though.
Soddy-Daisy’s 7-0 run led to the biggest lead of the match. Gracie Ratledge started it with a slap shot winner. Courtney Daughtry added a service point and an ace and a Lady Trojans error interrupted it. Rachel Rader knocked down a kill, Kyleigh Ward had a service point, and East Hamilton error kept it going, Cameren Swafford tossed in a deceptive dink and an error ended the spree.
The point-on-error got the Lady Hurricanes (10-13, 3-5) headed in the right direction with a gutsy 8-0 spree, although the Lady Trojans contributed as well with numerous errors of their own.
Lady Trojans coach Libby Peigen had seen enough and called timeout.
“They got my blood to boiling,” said Peigen, who could be heard all over the gymnasium making a heated point to her players. “I wasn’t happy that we just sit there and didn’t respond. They had done such a great job maintaining that ballgame and we’re lucky we had such a big lead that we could afford to make 11 errors in a row.”
Said, Swafford of the attention-grabbing huddle confab, “She definitely got our attention and she motivated us to do better and pick up our effort. We let some points get away from us and got frazzled a little bit. We had like nine or 10 straight errors and had to push through that.”
East Hamilton’s Madison Hayes shanked a slap shot to give Soddy-Daisy its 24th point.
A serve to the net gave that point back to East Hamilton. Then Jordyn Griffith scored on a tip to pull the Lady ‘Canes to within 24-21.
“We only needed one more point,” Swafford said. “I served into the net, but my team picked me up in the end.”
Kelsey Henderson’s winning kill was the match-clinching point.
“It was a very competitive match,” Rader said. “We were inconsistent at times but pulled things together and got out of the fourth-set rut. All in all, we did pretty good.”
Said East Hamilton coach Brian Wood, “We have to win the three phases of the game. We have to win the passing game and we didn’t do that. We have to put the ball down and we didn’t do that. Third, we have to win in serving and we served too many balls out tonight. Soddy-Daisy has a heck of a defensive team and they showed it out there in this match.”
In the first set, Soddy-Daisy used a 12-2 run – Swafford had three straight service points and Kirstie Williams and Rader added kills -- to open a 17-9 lead. The Lady Trojans were up 24-16 when East Hamilton scored five straight points, including two kills by Hayes.
Rader’s tip gave the Lady Trojans a 1-0 lead in sets.
With Soddy-Daisy ahead by 20-19 in the second, the Lady ‘Canes scored four straight points – Tryn Robinson had a slap, Hillary English two service points and the Lady Trojans tossed in an unforced error – and went ahead 23-20.
English served into the net and Somer Batten’s kill sailed long, enabling Soddy-Daisy to close the deficit to 23-22. The Lady Trojans then scored three times on Ward’s kill, an East Hamilton error and Brincks’ service point for a 25-24 lead.
A pair of Lady Trojan miscues gave the Lady ‘Canes a 26-25 lead. A Soddy-Daisy error tied the match. After officials ruled a “replay,” Rader’s kill went long and East Hamilton’s Sierrah Lemons drove home a service point for the 28-26 win.
Trailing 13-10 in the third, the Lady Trojans extended the lead to 18-14 as Kirstie Williams scored three points in the 8-1 run.
The Lady ‘Canes wouldn’t go away though.
A Batten kill sliced Soddy-Daisy’s lead to 23-22. A Brincks kill ricocheted off English, who moments later put down a winner with a left-handed tip, Raine Phillips had a tap and East Hamilton tied the score at 24-all.
Emma Mitchell’s two-handed push found the net and Swafford’s kill gave the Lady Trojans a 2-1 lead going into the fourth-set finale.
“We still need to improve a lot, but we’ve finally found the lineup we want and it’s beneficial for us to have two setters in the game at the same time,” Peigen said, “because that allows us to run a faster offense.
“I told them I was frustrated in the last set, but they should be proud they stayed mentally focused the entire match.”
STATISTICS
Soddy-Daisy
Kyleigh Ward – 7 kills, 15 assists, .5 block, 10 digs, 3 aces
Taylor Uren – 11 digs
Kirstie Williams – 5 kills, 25 assists, 9 digs, 2 aces
Cameren Swafford – 11 kills, 3 assists, .5 block, 11 digs, 3 aces
Rachel Rader – 13 kills, 11 digs, 1 block
Kylie Brincks – 17 digs, 4 aces
Kelsey Henderson – 4 kills, 1 dig
Gracie Ratledge – 6 kills, 1 block
East Hamilton
Emma Mitchell – 1 block
Hillary English – 5 aces, 3 kills, 2 blocks, 11 digs, 5 assists
Jayla Price – 2 aces, 11 digs, 2 assists
Jordyn Griffith – 1 block, 2 digs
Kayla Ford – 1 dig
Lillie Hardy – 2 kills, 2 blocks, 3 digs
Madison Hayes – 11 kills, 21 digs
Raine Phillips – 4 kills, 4 blocks, 6 digs
Somer Batten – 1 ace, 4 kills, 19 digs, 1 assist
Taryn Robinson – 2 aces, 2 kills, 6 digs, 2 assists
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)