After finding themselves in a 2-1 hole after the first three sets at Mount Gilead, the Cardington volleyball team was able to pick up their intensity to close out the match and claim a 25-19, 20-25, 20-25, 25-17, 15-9 win over the Indians.
In earning the win, the Pirates had to overcome a third-set collapse that saw the team rush out to a 9-0 lead behind the serving of Celia Hall, only to watch MG get a defensive point followed by nine straight points by Olivia Long. From there, the Indians pulled away behind three points from Cassady Irwin and two from Lindsey Ayers on the way to taking the set 25-20 and opening up a 2-1 lead in the match.
“We are working a lot on picking up our emotions and in the third set for sure, they let their emotions get the best of them,” said head coach Linda Brininger. “I got on them pretty good. I try not to do that, but after that, they fixed it. I didn’t even stand up for any more timeouts. I let them figure it out on their own.”
After that, the Pirates opened up another early lead in the fourth set, but were able to maintain it this time. With the score tied at one, Hall scored three straight to give her team the lead. One from Alexis Longsdorf and two by Rylee Donkin made it a 9-3 contest. Two points each from Ayers and Abby Leonhard brought Mount Gilead within a 12-10 margin, but they would not be able to get any closer.
After getting a defensive point, Cardington got two by Chloe Nida and the team would muster one point during each of the next five times they gained service to finish on top and knot the match at 2-2.
They would then pull away for the decisive fifth set win. With the score tied at two, the team got four straight points by Donkin to open up an advantage and were able to maintain a lead the rest of the way in picking up their second KMAC win of the season.
Mount Gilead coach Lyndsay Wyeth noted that slow starts to sets were costly for her team.
“We like to dig ourselves a hole and by the time we come back, it’s a little bit too late,” she said. “And we did that with Bucyrus on Saturday. We had to dig ourselves out of a hole there, too. We ended up winning that one, but today, we fell short.”
The Indians got out to slow starts in each of the five sets. The match opened with Hall scoring on her first three serves to stake Cardington to an early lead. While two points by Faith White were able to tie the score at 4-4, the Pirates got the ball back and Donkin scored seven straight to give her team a 12-4 lead.
One point by Taylor Prince and five by Lundyn Blevins boosted the lead to 20-8, but the Indians would attempt to rally late. Brooklynn White scored three points and Faith White added two in helping the team get as close as five points before a defensive score gave Cardington a 25-19 win.
The Pirates would then take a 3-0 lead in the second set thanks to a pair of scoring serves by Hall. However, Mount Gilead would bounce back. Trailing 5-3, they got five straight points from Ayers to take the lead.
Cardington would keep the score close, but with it 11-10 in favor of the Indians, the home team got two points each from Long and Faith White to get a bit of breathing room. Five more points from Ayers turned an 18-14 advantage to a nine-point lead. While Prince scored four late points, it wouldn’t be enough and Mount Gilead was able to claim the second set.
After fighting back from that early 9-0 deficit to win the third, it looked like the Indians would have the momentum, but Cardington was able to fight back to win two straight sets and claim the match.
After the match, Wyeth noted that poor serving has played a role in the team’s struggles and is something that is being worked on.
“We missed a lot of serves,” she said. “It’s kind of a consistent thing we’ve been doing, so we’re trying to work on that and improve our serving. That’s one of the biggest things. We end up getting down by missed serves. I think we missed probably 12 tonight and 14 the other night, so we’re working on serving.”
Brininger said that a big focus in practice has been to keep her players moving and invested in the on-court action, so that awareness starts to pay off in competition.
“We had our practice last night where all we did was serve and then we threw the ball over just to keep them moving because sometimes they watch and they’re not participating,” she said. “So we did that a lot last night — they didn’t particularly care for that practice. I told them it didn’t matter. We still find ourselves watching instead of moving to the ball, but we’re getting there.”
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
