Gaudy records are nice to look at and fun to talk about, but they don’t prepare teams for post-season tournaments. That’s why Boyd Buchanan volleyball coach Shanda Kirk isn’t concerned that her team has lost many more matches than they have won in the past month.
Who knows what Boyd’s record is, but you can bet the Lady Bucs will be ready to play when the tournaments begin the first week of October.
The Signal Mountain Lady Eagles are in the same boat. They are the defending Class AA state champions, but finally reached the break-even mark with the four set win over the Lady Bucs at Jett Gym Wednesday evening. The Lady Eagles are now 12-12, but have won three straight matches this week after losing four of five in the River City Rumble over the weekend.
The Lady Eagles prevailed in Wednesday’s non-district match by winning three of the four sets. Signal Mountain cruised to 25-13 and 25-17 wins in the first two sets before the Lady Bucs claimed the third by a 25-22 final. The Lady Eagles were then able to get back on track for a 25-15 win in the fourth set.
Signal Mountain coach Jennifer Redman is just happy that her girls found a way to win after the Lady Bucs regained a little momentum with that third-set win.
“Our serve receive seemed to be a problem today, but we were able to stay focused and were able to get most of our serves in,” she expressed afterward.
“We didn’t have Carlee Lowry or Becca Rogers the first time we played them and lost, but they made a difference today. The key for us is to stay healthy. We’re tired right now as we’ve played eight matches in the past five days, but we got a good win against a good team today on the road and that matters a lot.
“I think we just lost our focus in that third set as we weren’t passing very well, but we just have to stay locked in and consistent. I’m glad that we were able to get more girls involved in the offense in the fourth set, but we’ll have a short practice tomorrow before taking Friday off so we’ll be ready for next week,” Redman smiled.
Boyd Buchanan’s Kirk wasn’t too crazy about the thumping her girls took in that first set, but she was excited about how they battled back and stayed positive the rest of the way. The Lady Bucs only have four seniors on their roster this fall and two of them were out on Wednesday, so a bunch of younger girls are getting great experience and Kirk is happy about that.
“That first set was rough, but I liked the way we battled back,” she said shortly after the match ended.
“Marisa Green is a freshman who stepped up and did some good things. Makiah Houston is just a sophomore, but she too helped us out today. Signal has a great front row and we had a hard time defending them, but serve and serve receive is what it really comes down to. I thought we did well in those spots.
“It would have been easy to have given up after that first set, but I thought we showed a lot of heart as it was a great opportunity to learn from the experience. We’re trying to get used to a new offense, but I feel like we took another step in the right direction today,” Kirk nodded.
Serving was Signal’s friend in the opening set as three players combined to score 16 points on serves alone, but it was four in a row from Kate Lowe that allowed the Lady Eagles to break from an 8-8 tie. Five more from Carlee Lowry extended a four-point lead to 18-9 while four straight from Elle Ramsey put the Lady Eagles at set point before a kill from Sydney Smith finished it.
Laci Durkee got the Lady Bucs off and running in the second set with six straight service points that included four aces, but the Lady Eagles kept chipping away and finally took the lead in the midst of nine straight service points from Lowry, who also had four of her six aces in the stretch where the Lady Eagles turned a 10-8 deficit to a 17-10 lead.
And then, with Signal holding a 20-17 lead, Smith had five straight service points to win it, including two aces.
Malena Jones showed her value from the service line in the third set when the Lady Bucs broke from a 6-6 tie to grab an 11-6 advantage with three aces. The Lady Eagles never backed down and eventually knotted the score at 22-22 on a kill from Maddie Shelton, but a kill from Houston, an ace from Jones and a Signal hitting error kept the Lady Bucs from being shut out.
The fourth set was close for a while, but the Lady Eagles took the lead for the last time at 6-5 on an ace from Lowry and never lost it as the Lady Bucs simply didn’t have enough firepower to battle back.
Lowry had her best match since her return last week as she finished with 19 kills, 26 digs and six aces to lead the Lady Eagles. Rogers was also effective with 13 digs, nine kills and five aces while Ramsey had 41 assists and seven digs.
Durkee was the leader for the Lady Bucs as she finished with 18 assists and four aces while Jones added five aces. Brynlee Messer had seven kills, Josselyn Sircy 18 digs and Houston five kills in limited playing time.
Boyd Buchanan plays again on Thursday at Grace while Signal Mountain will host Sale Creek on Monday.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN STATS:
Emma Schleger – 5 digs
Carlee Lowry – 19 kills, 26 digs, 6 aces, 1 block
Maddie Shelton – 1 block, 6 kills
Sydney Smith – 5 kills, 13 digs, 6 aces, 1 block
Becca Rogers – 5 aces, 9 kills, 13 digs, 1 block
Kate Gilbert – 4 kills, 3 digs
Elle Ramsey – 41 assists, 7 digs, 1 ace
Kate Lowe – 2 aces, 3 digs.
BOYD BUCHANAN STATS:
Brynlee Messer – 7 kills
Josselyn Sircy – 18 digs
Eden Mathis – 3 kills
Sydney Thompson – 3 blocks
Makiah Houston – 5 kills
Malena Jones – 5 aces
Laci Durkee – 18 assists, 4 aces.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)