GRAY – Daniel Boone survived five match points, but couldn’t rebound from a sixth on Senior Night
Tied 17-17 in the fifth, a Lady ‘Blazer dig clanged off a raised backboard leading to Dobyns-Bennett’s 24-26, 25-22, 20-25, 25-16, 19-17 victory inside Bobby Snyder Gymnasium which later Tuesday evening served as the home venue for rival Crockett’s five-set setback to West Ridge 26-24, 25-27, 27-25, 22-25, 15-12.
Due to the flooding in the southern part of Washington County, the Lady Pioneers needed a place to play their final home match and Daniel Boone was happy to host.
“So glad we could make this happen and we know they are hurting down there and we want to be as supportive as we can,” said Boone coach Chelsea Spivey. “At the end of the day, this volleyball community is tight and we support and love each other.”
Crockett coach Ashton Hippenstiel was grateful for some sense of normalcy the sport of volleyball brings.
“I think this was awesome and we appreciate Daniel Boone making this night happen,” said Hippenstiel. “These kids have been working their butts off in the community because everybody in our community is directly impacted.
“They’ve been down right in the middle of Lamar and right down in the middle of South-Central. They needed this to compress. They needed to be kids again. A lot of these kids had to be grown-ups and probably saw some things they’d never seen before and hopefully will never see again. The fact is that we were blessed to come here tonight and play volleyball.”
The Lady Pioneers to get off to the expected slow start, falling behind 19-10 in the first set before rallying to tie the frame at 24-24 before West Ridge slipped away. The Lady Wolves led 20-13 in the second when Crockett rallied for the win in more extra time.
“They were serving us off the court,” said West Ridge coach Logan Kemp. “They had us on our heels in serve-receive a lot throughout the night. And that made a big difference in those comebacks in the middle of the sets.”
In the pivotal third frame, it was Crockett that saw a 22-18 lead get away as West Ridge took the two-point win in still more extra play.
The fourth was deadlocked at 22-22 when the Lady Pioneers scored the final three with a Kaylee Childress block and a kill securing the win and forcing the fifth set.
Crockett led 10-6 in the fifth, but couldn’t put away the win as the Lady Wolves closed out on a 9-2 run sparked by four kills and a block by Isabelle Brickey.
“That was good, good volleyball,” said Crockett’s Hippenstiel. “We just have to learn how to terminate. We are scrapping teams until they error, but teams aren’t going to do that all the time. We stayed close because we wore them out in long rallies where they errored before we did. We have to terminate the ball and we have to find someone who wants to terminate every single time they touch it.”
Brickey led West Ridge (3-7, 17-14) with 17 kills and three blocks. Allie Reilly hit a robust .450 in the middle with ten kills and also had three blocks.
Kaiya Signaty pitched in with eight kills and Kami Clark added six. Senior setter Remi Smith dished out 24 assists and brought up 14 digs for a double-double. Fellow senior setter Aubrey Killen came through with 14 assists.
Libero Maggie Niebruegge flashed with 22 digs while Ella Coates brought up ten.
Callie Butler put down 18 kills for Crockett (2-8, 12-16)) with Brylee Tullock finishing off a dozen and Childress ten. Sydney Shelton handed out a whopping 50 assists on the night to go with 17 digs.
Tullock also brought up 20 digs, Butler came up with 16, Kara Coggins 15 and Katie Onks 11. Tullock, Butler and Coggins all delivered a pair of service aces.
The opener proved far different than the three-set drubbing of the Lady ‘Blazers delivered by Dobyns-Bennett three weeks ago.
“That’s a different team that we saw before,” said Dobyns-Bennett coach Kayce Green. “I respect Chelsea a ton and I think she’s great and she’s instilled such heart in her team. I think that showed out here tonight. They were completely different. I would watch out for them.”
The fifth set was tied a dozen times before the Lady Indians finally secured the 19-17 victory.
“Tough loss, but it was a good hard fought match between both teams,” said Boone coach Chelsea Baker. “We gave them a better run for their money than we did last time. They came in the last match and played fast and hard and we were kind of stuck on our heels.”
The always-unpredictable Green switched the Lady Indian offense back to the 5-1 attack that started the season with Mela Bice producing 42 assists, 14 digs and two aces in the role.
“Everyone is prepared, everyone has weapons and everyone switches it up like we did tonight,” explained Green. “We went to a 5-1 specifically because I wanted to do something different because people were used to seeing stuff we were doing so I was like let’s just change the offense a little bit.”
The switch of attack resulted in a wide diversity of finishers with Kiyah Blue and Norah Shook both tallying 15 kills. Jeslyn Hardin went for 13 kills, Jolee McLain 12 and Caroline Church nine.
“We talk a lot about trying to run the ball as much behind us as we do forward in transition,” Green said. “I think we were running the outsides too much, we needed to have as many hitters as possible running the plays out. It was helpful for us open up stuff for Jo and Lucy (Roberts) in the front and right side became a threat and Melsa was live so we had all these threats and it opened it up for Norah and Kiyah.”
Defensively, Arden Bateman covered the floor to bring up 32 digs with Blye coming up 16 and Hardin and Milly Williams ten apiece. Church also had three blocks while Bateman served three aces and Hadin two.
Senior setter Addison Dietz notched a second triple-double in a week with 34 assists, 15 digs and 10 kills for Boone (3-7, 14-14)
Senior outside Taylor Brinn came through with a double-double of 19 kills and 17 digs. Senior middle Ashlyn Seymore added ten kills, Ella Wison seven and Mallory Carpenter six.
Senior libero Ella Byrdecame up with 12 digs to go with eight assists and two aces. Senior defensive specialist Haven Barney had 14 digs while senior Katie Sparks led the defense with 19 digs.
It was also Senior Night for Dietz, Brinn, Seymour, Byrd, Barney, Sparks, Macie Scott and Ashlyn Newton.
“These seniors have been through three different coaches and we’ve had to adapt through the season,” said Baker. “It’s been fun to watch them grow, not just as volleyball players, but as people. It’s been good to be in their life. I see them every single day, multiple hours a day and you just love them more the more you get to know them.”
The same four teams will reconvene Thursday in the first round of the District 1-AAA Tournament at Science Hill.
Third-seed Dobyns-Bennett opens against No. 6 David Crockett at 5:00 p.m.
“It’s going to be more of the same, probably two-more five setters,” smiled Crockett’s Hippenstiel.
Boone is officially the fourth seed courtesy of its win over Tennessee High with West Ridge the fifth seed. Both matches are elimination matches with the winners advancing to next week’s double-elimination round.
“Tonight gives us a little bit more confidence because early in the season those matches probably wouldn’t have gone our way,” noted West Ridge’s Kemp. “All those matches are going to be close. Every single point is going to be a battle in that tournament. It’s going to be close all the way around.”
2024 District 1-AAA Tournament @ Science Hill
Thursday, October 3
Match 1 - No. 3 Dobyns-Bennett vs No. 6 David Crockett, 5:00 p.m.
Match 2 - No. 4 Daniel Boone vs No. 5 West Ridge, 7:00 p.m.
Monday, October 7
Match 3 - No. 4 / No. 5 winner vs No. 1 Science Hill, 5:00 p.m.
Match 4 - No. 3 / No. 6 winner vs No. 2 Tennessee High, 7:00 p.m.
Tuesday, October 8
Match 5 - Match 3 winner vs Match 4 winner, 5:00 p.m.
Match 6 - Match 3 loser vs Match 4 loser, 7:00 p.m.
Wednesday, October 9
Match 7 - Match 5 loser vs Match 6 winner, 7:00 p.m.
Thursday, October 10
Match 8 - Match 5 winner vs Match 7 winner, 5:00 p.m.
Match 9 - Match 5 winner vs Match 7 winner, 7:00 p.m., if necessary
