The McClain Lady Tigers volleyball team traveled to Lynchburg-Clay high school on Wednesday night for a non-conference matchup and won in five sets with a final score of 3-2.
The last time the Lady Tigers met the Lady Mustangs, they were on their way to winning the Spike and Dig tournament before the season started. In that game, they swept the Lynchburg team in two sets with scores of 25-22 and 25-20. In the game Wednesday night, the Lady Mustangs weren’t so easy to shut down.
Lynchburg got out to a quick 2-0 lead after the first two sets after winning 25-19 and 25-22. McClain won the third set, but only barely with a score of 25-23. In the fourth set, it looked like McClain would easily force a fifth set as at one point they were up 20-11 on the Lady Mustangs. But the Lady Mustangs roared back towards the end of the set and gave the Lady Tigers some trouble but McClain was able to hold on and win the set with a score of 25-22.
In the fifth and final set, McClain looked to have finally wore down the Lady Mustangs and took the set with ease with a final of 15-7, winning the match with a final of 3-2.
“It’s always good to see a team, where they lose the first two sets, that they still have the heart to come back and I think they really got that drive back into them in order to win those last three,” said Lady Tigers Head Coach Emma Gall after the game. “We struggled tonight. Passing wasn’t there but we came back and showed that we weren’t going to give up. It was a nice win in the end.”
Two Lady Mustangs hit career milestones in the game on Wednesday. Shelby Marshall got her 500th hit in the second set and Brittany Ernst collected her 750th dig in the third set.
“Those two [Shelby and Brittany] have meant the world to this program,” said Lynchburg Head Coach Mark Faust after the game. “The year before they started, their eighth grade year, the volleyball team won two sets all year. Now we’re 11-5 and won the Division I Southern Hills Athletic Conference last season and in the hunt for this year as well. They’ve totally flipped the script for the program. I know we didn’t get the win tonight, but if you look at the entirety of their career, they’ve helped turn the ship around here and that’s what you want out of kids. All in all, those two have done a lot in their careers.
“We started really well those first two sets. I don’t know if we could have played much better. Greenfield is a really good team. I think we kind of got caught up in it there in the third set and the fourth set we didn’t start well at all, and then in that fifth set, you could just see the confidence go out of us. McClain has a really good team so there’s nothing wrong with losing to them, I just think after those first two sets we kind of gave up a little bit and just assumed that we were going to win and that was the problem.”
Reach Robert Stegbauer at 937-393-3456 ext. 1679 or on Twitter @RStegbauer.
