Baylor's Morgan Sharpe gets a dig against Soddy Daisy during their Pink Out match Tuesday evening at Baylor.
photo by Walt Kean, RaiderRecap
Baylor hosted Soddy Daisy in a non-district volleyball match Tuesday night and the Lady Red Raiders were victorious in three straight sets, but the biggest winner was the Mary Ellen Locher Foundation as it was an ever-important Pink Out match in an effort to raise money for the continuing battle against breast cancer.
There was pink all around, including jerseys for both teams, roses, balloons and banners. There were lots of hugs and smiles and even a few tears as the fight against this terrible disease continues.
But when all of the pre-match recognition and celebration was over, Baylor got right down to business and improved to 9-5 overall with the win, taking the match by scores of 25-12, 25-12 and 25-20.
“I’m just super excited at the energy we brought today as it was a good day for us and we hopefully raised a lot of money for the Mary Ellen Locher Foundation,” said Baylor coach Sarah Lail afterwards.
“Addie Margio has been out with an injury for the past couple of weeks, so it was nice to see her back in the swing of things, but we’re getting ready to start our region matches and just wanted to get our confidence level up for that.
“I thought we played well as we were firing on all cylinders. Sydney Sharpe played a great match running our offense and Mia Kinney just keeps getting better with every match. We have a big match at Knoxville Webb on Thursday and today’s match helped us get ready for that,” Lail added.
Shirah Foor is in her second season leading the Lady Trojans and the young lady who calls Buffalo, N.Y. home knows that time and experience are the only things that will help her young team improve.
She wasn’t real overjoyed with the results of the first two sets, but she liked the battle her team offered in the third set, which turned out to be the best of the match.
“We have a really young team and I feel like our defense kept us in the match,” she began after her team’s record dropped to 4-7.
“Baylor has a really good team with some solid hitters and we needed to face a team like that as we have a big district match with Signal Mountain on Thursday and they play much the same way.
“Baylor was able to find more ways to score and that’s what we need to do, but we battled for the entire match and I’m pleased with that,” she added.
Kills from Mia Kinney, Addie Margio and Emma Mulvaney gave Baylor a quick 3-0 lead. Another kill by Bailey Shahan extended the difference to 9-5 before six straight service points from Franny Brooksbank made it 15-5.
A block by Sydney Sharpe a minute later gave Baylor the first set.
A kill by Belle Lamonica gave Soddy Daisy a 1-0 lead in the second set and a block by the talented senior put the Lady Trojans up 4-3. Back-to-back hitting errors put Baylor ahead for good at 5-4.
A kill from Mason Harris knotted the score at 5-5 for Soddy Daisy, but five straight service points from Jessy Blevins made it 11-5 while five more service points from Shahan doubled the score at 20-10 as the Lady Red Raiders scored 10 of the final 12 points for a 2-0 lead in the best-of-five match.
Baylor led the entire third set, but play was much more intense as the Lady Trojans stayed within striking distance the whole time.
Baylor’s biggest lead was six points on two occasions, the last time at 19-13 before Soddy Daisy rallied. An ace from Aubrey Renfro got the Lady Trojans within two at 21-19 before Baylor responded with kills from Margio, Maggie Hansen and Mulvaney wrapped up the win as Baylor scored four of the last five points.
Margio, Hansen and Kinney all led the Baylor hitters with seven kills apiece while Shahan had six and Mulvaney five.
Sharpe finished with 17 assists while Blevins was credited with 13 digs. Brooksbank had a dozen while Kinney added 10.
There were no available stats for Soddy Daisy.
BAYLOR STATS:
Franny Brooksbank – 12 digs
Addie Margio – 7 kills, 1 dig, 2 blocks
Maggie Hansen – 7 kills, 2 digs
Bailey Shahan – 6 kills, 1 ace, 1 dig, 1 block
Sydney Sharpe – 3 kills, 17 assists, 3 digs
Emma Mulvaney – 5 kills, 4 digs
Jessy Blevins – 1 assist, 1 ace, 13 digs
Mia Kinney – 7 kills, 10 digs
Kaylee Snyder – 2 aces, 6 digs.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)