Whitwell’s volleyball team came across Suck Creek Mountain late Wednesday afternoon to pay a visit to Red Bank, but it was the Lady Tigers who looked more at home at the Susan Ingram Thurman Gymnasium after sweeping the Lady Lions and improving to 8-3 in the process.
Neither team played its best match of the season by a long shot as both were guilty of many unforced hitting errors and a host of missed serves, but the Lady Tigers were able to overcome all of that to win by scores of 25-22, 25-12 and 25-17.
“It seems like we made it a whole lot more difficult than it should have been, but we’ll take it,” said Whitwell coach Eric Zensen shortly after the match ended.
“We struggled with serve and serve receive as that’s normally two of our strengths, but I thought we did a nice job of battling through all the mistakes we made. It wasn’t our best match by a long shot, but we’ll take the win and go home,” the veteran coach added.
The Lady Lions are now 1-5 following this latest defeat. Coach Taylor Gatewood is just hoping her girls can put together a complete match one day soon.
“We just need to learn how to finish as it’s not for a lack of hustle,” Gatewood nodded afterward.
“Volleyball is a game of constant momentum shifts. We played well at times, but there were other times when we were playing to not lose instead of playing to win.
“I thought we did a lot of good things, but there were times when we lacked intensity. It’s the little things that hurt, but we’ll just keep working with hopes of a different result next time,” Gatewood added.
Six straight service points from Jayden Hicks allowed Whitwell to turn a 9-8 deficit to a 14-9 lead in the opening set while five straight service points from Red Bank’s Chloe Hillian allowed the Lady Lions to regain the upper hand at 15-14.
Whitwell’s lead of 21-20 was assisted by three Red Bank service errors, including a third that gave the Lady Tigers the first set.
A service error by Whitwell and an ace from Londynn Roberts gave Red Bank a 2-0 lead in the second set before Whitwell took the lead with four straight points.
It never got any closer as seven straight service points from Mollie Rogers extended Whitwell’s lead to 24-9.
Back-to-back aces from Roberts delayed the inevitable for a minute before a kill from Mallory O’Neal gave the Lady Tigers the second-set win.
Red Bank played its best in the third set and even had a 7-4 lead following four service points from Brooklyn Smith, but the Lady Lions couldn’t sustain that success as Whitwell knotted the score at 11-11 and grabbed the lead for the last time following four straight service points from Rogers.
Another service error by Red Bank, its 11th of the match, awarded the match to the Lady Tigers.
Jayden Hicks and her twin sister Jaycee both had eight kills to lead Whitwell hitters while Rogers was credited with nine digs and six aces. Lauren Ridge and Malayna Bull both followed with seven digs.
Ashanti Eddins was the leader for Red Bank with three kills, three blocks, two digs and two aces. Roberts had 11 digs while Hillian finished with seven assists and six digs.
WHITWELL STATS:
Malayna Bull – 4 aces, 7 digs
Jaycee Hicks – 8 kills
Jayden Hicks – 5 aces, 8 kills, 3 digs
Emma Olinger – 4 aces
Lauren Ridge – 7 digs
Mollie Rogers – 6 aces, 9 digs.
RED BANK STATS:
Sydney Callison – 3 digs
Ashanti Eddins – 2 aces, 3 kills, 3 blocks, 2 digs
Brooklynn Ervin – 2 kills, 4 digs, 1 assist
Brooklyn Smith – 1 ace, 8 digs
Chloe Hillian – 2 aces, 6 digs, 7 assists
Londynn Roberts – 2 aces, 2 kills, 11 digs
Bella Watson – 2 kills, 1 dig.
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)