CLEVELAND, Tenn. — The early season learning process continued for Walker Valley and Cleveland inside “The Stable” Thursday as the Lady Raiders ended a long day of volleyball with a 3-0 win over the Lady Mustangs.
Although not reflected on the scoreboard, the Lady Mustangs put up a strong battle against the Lady Raiders in the straight set loss.
Set scores were 25-13, 25-17 and 25-15 in favor of Cleveland.
“The first set we struggled with a different offense and a different speed and tempo. Then we recognized we can do something with it. Changing our mentality and changing our energy, the little things that matter,” said Lady Mustangs head coach Abby Stroh. “Coming into the second and third set I saw a different side of them. I think they really put up a fight even though the scoreboard doesn't necessarily show it.”
After dropping a 2-1 decision at the home of the Lady Rebels, the Lady Raiders came back to town against Walker Valley where the earned shutout.
“It was OK, we've had a long day. We traveled to Marry and played them, it's just been a long day,” said Lady Raiders head coach Amy McGowan. “We had a lot of unforced errors at the beginning. We're just not good enough to be able to do that. We've got to get better at not serving the ball out of bounds or hitting in straight into the net. They are just our errors, just not even getting the ball over the net.”
Breaking a 5-5 tie, Cleveland's Gunny Brock served up a pair of aces that helped the Lady Raiders to a 10-5 lead. Minutes a service ace by Ariyah Huffman made it 14-8.
The Lady Raiders kept the aces coming as Ava Franklin and Brock administered unanswered shots to up the margin to 21-12. The Lady Mustangs picked up one more point before a final ace by Ana Carden ended the set.
Set No. 2 opened the Lady Raiders jumping to a 6-2 lead on a pair of Payton Giannasio aces. The Lady Mustangs battled back to tie the score at 11-11 on an ace by Caileigh Collins ace, but the Raiders bounced right bak to retake the lead, 14-11. Madeline McBrayer went up to block a shot to make it 15-14 in front of an ace from Maddison McClung that knotted the score at 15-15.
Once again, Cleveland fired back reeling off four straight points to move ahead 19-5. Back-to-back aces from Franklin put the Raiders on top 22-16. Again the Lady Mustangs managed a final point before Cleveland closed out the set with three straight points.
The final set of the night belonged to the Lady Raiders from the opening serve as the raced to a 7-1 lead and built a 10-3 advantage minutes later before adding four more to make it 14-4.
The Lady Mustangs fought back with a kill by Journey Rollo and Ava Davis wrapped around a Rollo ace. Walker Valley pushed back cutting the Cleveland lead to 18-14 before Cleveland pulled away 22-14 and finished the math win with the final three points.
The Lady Raiders host a quad meet Tuesday against Baylor, East Hamilton and Maryville. Cleveland will go against Baylor and East Hamilton.
“We have two seniors. The rest are juniors and sophomores. At one point there were two freshmen out there. We're just inexperienced,” said McGowan.
The Lady Mustangs will be in tournament action this weekend at Ooltewah.
“It's continuous work, continuing to come in every day, fight every day at practice and getting better. Every little thing matters. It just takes time,” Stroh stated.