The Grace Academy Lady Golden Eagle volleyball team won its 20th match at Boyd-Buchanan Thursday evening, but more importantly, they remained unbeaten in District 5-A with a perfect 8-0 record.
It took the ladies in maroon a little while to get their ducks in a row, but once they erased all the distractions from their minds, it didn’t take long to prevail.
The Lady Bucs won the opening set by a 25-23 final, but what had worked for Boyd-Buchanan in that first set didn’t work as well in the next three as Grace came back to win them by scores of 25-17, 25-13 and 25-20.
“I’m sure that we didn’t come out focused tonight as we must have forgotten what we were here fighting for,” said Grace coach Hillary Waters as her team improved to 20-7 for the season.
“We made 17 errors in that first set alone and you can’t beat anybody playing like that, but we rebounded and were able to play a lot better after that.
“Boyd-Buchanan is relentless in their attack and we knew we’d have to fight to beat them, but we just had to have some girls step up and clean up our game and that’s the way it turned out. We finally started showing the volleyball skills we have,” Waters added.
Grace scored the first point of the match on a service error, but the Lady Bucs got five straight service points from Maddie Millwood for a 6-1 lead. That advantage had stretched to 14-5 before Grace called a timeout.
The visitors came back to knot the score at 16-16, but a service error, a hitting error and a block from Mackenzie Mann gave the Lady Bucs a 19-16 lead and they were able to break from a 23-23 tie to win after Grace made two more errors.
A couple of kills from Alexandra Smith allowed Grace to score the first three points of the second set. Three straight hitting errors by Grace allowed the Lady Bucs to lead for the only time at 12-11 before the Lady Eagles got a kill from Autumn Parrott and four straight service points from Summer Dean.
It never got any closer than three points as Grace evened the score at one set apiece when Holley Fulgham’s kill ended it.
The third set belonged completely to Grace as the Lady Eagles had regained a little confidence at that point while just the opposite had happened to the Lady Bucs.
Grace’s lead was 8-2 when the first timeout was called by Boyd-Buchanan coach Nancy Culver. By the time she called the second one, the difference was 20-8 and the Lady Eagles were well on their way toward gaining the upper hand.
Boyd-Buchanan may have been down at that point, but not out.
An ace by Smith stretched the Grace lead to 9-4, but a block from Meredith Balthrop and a kill from Julia Headrick knotted the score at 10-10 before a hitting error by Grace gave Boyd-Buchanan an 11-10 lead. Four straight points by Grace, including two kills by Parrott and a block from Megan Long, allowed the Lady Eagles to regain some momentum and Culver called her last timeout with her team trailing 19-14.
The Lady Bucs then battled back to within a point at 21-20 before Smith ended the match with a tip and three straight kills.
Smith was by far the best player on the court and she forced her will on the Lady Bucs as she finished with 27 kills and 17 digs in addition to four aces and four blocks. When she gets in her rhythm, there are very few teams in town that can handle her and Thursday’s results just prove it.
“What a whirlwind match that was,” the slender junior said shortly after the match ended.
“We weren’t mentally ready to play at the start and I personally was letting some other stuff get in the way, so I just had to let it all go and start playing the way I know how. I think I was in outer space at the start as that first set was probably our worst of the season, but we came together and started playing a lot better after that,” she added.
The Lady Bucs are now 18-11 overall and tied for second with Silverdale at 7-3 in 5-A. Coach Culver certainly liked the way things started out, but the finish left a lot to be desired on her part.
“We came out with a lot of energy and played together in that first set. We’re a solid team when we play like that, but this team is on too much of a roller coaster. We started getting down on ourselves and our communication wasn’t very good.
“I don’t have much to say about that third set as we just totally lost it, but we’re young and need to be on the same page with each other to be successful,” she added.
While Smith was the individual leader for Grace, teammates Maggie Long and Summer Dean also played well as they were credited with 40 assists and 33 digs, respectively. Parrott also played well with 10 kills and four digs.
Headrick had six kills and four digs to lead the Lady Bucs while Balthrop had eight assists in addition to four digs and five kills. Mann had five blocks and Madison Taylor nine digs for the Lady Bucs.
Grace is headed to Franklin for the Willco Invitational this weekend while Boyd-Buchanan will travel to Lookout Valley on Monday for its next match.
Boyd-Buchanan will then host the District 5-A tournament, which starts on Monday, Oct. 3.
SILVERDALE WAS a 3-0 winner over CSAS on Thursday as the Lady Seahawks won by scores of 25-18, 25-11 and 25-12. Emma Dale had 10 kills and Falyn Blalock 13 assists for the winners.
BAYLOR AND NOTRE DAME were also victorious on Thursday as nationally-ranked Baylor remained unbeaten after 34 matches with 2-0 wins over Blessed Trinity and Woodward Academy in Atlanta. Scores of the first match were 25-22 and 25-13 and the second 25-11 and 25-11. Blessed Trinity is the only team to win a set from Baylor and the Lady Red Raiders are now 82-1 in sets played this fall.
Notre Dame improved to 12-8 overall and 6-1 in District 7-AA with a 25-12, 25-18 and 25-15 win at home against Grundy County.
Gabby Gray had 18 kills and nine digs to lead Baylor while teammates Sarah Sumida had 50 assists and nine digs while Paris Buckner had four blocks. Lilly Turner had another outstanding match for Baylor with 21 digs.
Mackenzie Johnson had seven kills and Ally Mildenberger eight digs to lead Notre Dame. Sarah Desai added 29 assists and three aces for the winning Lady Irish.
GRACE STATS:
Autumn Parrott – 10 kills, 1 ace, 4 digs, 1 block
Lexie Mullins – 5 digs
Megan Long – 1 ace, 5 digs, 1 block
Summer Dean – 2 kills, 40 assists, 1 ace, 13 digs
Holley Fulgham – 2 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks
Maggie Long – 1 ace, 33 digs, 3 assists
Alexandra Smith – 27 kills, 4 aces, 4 blocks, 17 digs
Julianna Hill – 2 kills, 2 aces, 3 digs
Juliana Gonzales – 1 dig
Abby McGaughey – 2 aces, 5 digs.
BOYD-BUCHANAN STATS:
Meredith Balthrop – 4 digs, 5 kills, 8 assists, 2 aces, 1 block
Julia Headrick – 4 digs, 6 kills, 1 block, 2 aces
Jordan Furtney – 3 digs, 4 assists
Kensley Parker – 1 assist
Maddie Millwood – 5 digs, 2 assists, 3 aces
Erin Syring – 2 kills, 3.5 blocks
Maddie Van Eaton – 2 digs
Anna Williamson – 1 dig
Mackenzie Mann – 4 kills, 5 blocks
Madison Taylor – 9 digs, 3 aces.
SILVERDALE STATS:
Falyn Blalock – 2 digs, 5 aces, 13 assists
Emma Dale – 4 digs, 4 aces, 10 kills
Savannah Gann – 1 dig, 1 assist
Sarah Kestila – 1 dig, 1 ace, 1 block
Kenzie Manning – 1 ace, 2 blocks, 4 kills
Kayleigh Page – 1 block
Katie Patrick – 1 dig, 1 block, 4 kills
Harper Sutton – 2 digs, 1 ace
Lexi Vogel – 1 dig
Emily Wells – 1 ace.
BAYLOR COMBINED STATS:
Denver Rogers -- 9 digs
Gabby Gray -- 18 kills, 9 digs, 1 assist, 1 ace
Sarah Sumida -- 50 assists, 9 digs, 2 kills, 3 aces
Ally Craig -- 11 kills, 3 aces, 6 digs
Lexie Laurendine -- 9 kills, 3 blocks
Jane Wilson -- 8 kills, 3 blocks
Paris Buckner -- 6 kills, 4 blocks
Elizabeth Case -- 2 aces, 1 dig, 1 assist
Lilly Turner -- 2 aces, 2 assists, 21 digs.
NOTRE DAME STATS:
Ally Mildenberger -- 8 digs, 2 assists, 1 ace
Sarah Desai -- 29 assists, 3 aces, 1 dig, 1 block
Mackenzie Johnson -- 7 kills, 2 blocks
Claire VanderWerf -- 6 kills, 1 ace, 4 digs
Tess Scobey -- 6 kills, 2 aces, 3 digs
Jazzmyne Watkins -- 4 kills, 2 digs
Maggie Martin -- 2 kills, 3 aces, 2 digs
Kyla Mitchell -- 3 kills, 1 dig, 1 block
Liz Labbe -- 1 dig. 1 ace.
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)