Lady Indians rally to win in 5 sets over rival McClain

The 2014 South Central Ohio League season opener for the Hillsboro Indians was on the brink of being a three-set sweep, but they finally put everything together and rallied to win sets three through five for the league win over rival McClain.

The win Thursday at Hillsboro High School saw the Lady Indians struggle at the end of the first two sets with MHS winning 26-24 in the first set and 25-23 in set two.

From there, the Lady Indians (2-1 overall) won the third set, 25-17, and set four, 25-23.

Then came the fifth and match-deciding set, which was tied eight times, with HHS scoring the final two points of the match for a 15-11 win.

"Overall, it took us some time. We were playing to catch up in the first two sets, but in the last three, we played to win," HHS head coach Amy Vance said. "It was nice to get a league win right away, and this is a confidence booster."

In looking at the fifth set, it was tied at 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8. HHS then took the advantage with a lead of 11-8, then went ahead by a 13-10 score with a spike from Mallory Overberg.

HHS eventually won the fifth set and the match with MHS hitting the ball out of play.

"Overall, I thought we played well," MHS head coach Emma Gall said. "We lacked communication.

"We made some nice plays at the net, but it came down to lack of communication. We have to start communicating better."

As for the first two sets of the match, the Lady Tigers and the Lady Indians were tied at 5, 6 and later at 24.

In the middle of the first set, HHS had points from Kirsten Juillerat (five blocks, four assists) and Taylor Remsing (13 kills, five aces). With MHS leading 24-22, HHS scored the next two points to tie the score, including an ace from Emma Reno.

MHS battled back to win set one with a block from Sydney Barton and then a hit over the net from Barton for the two-point win.

The second set was tied on six occasions with MHS gaining points early on from Sarah Bennett and Kelcey Smith for a 4-3 lead. Later, a block at the top of the net from Remsing brought HHS to within three points of tying the score at 7-4.

In the final stages of the second set, Allie Orr-Zody put MHS ahead by two at 24-22, and the Lady Tigers eventually won with HHS hitting their own side of the net.

The third set saw HHS take a 5-0 lead at the start with points from Kennedy Harless and Erin Hagan.

Late in set three, Malea Montavon brought MHS to within five points of tying HHS, but this set was mostly handled by HHS as it was never tied.

The final points of the match came off a block and a spike by Juillerat, and the final point was scored with MHS hitting their own net.

Set four was very close, with MHS getting within two points of winning the entire match, but they just didn't get the points needed at the end to take home the win. On the other hand, HHS did what was needed to tie the match at two set wins each.

For HHS, Chloe Harless led the team in passing.

HHS will play again on Monday in a tri-match at Western Latham, while MHS will participate in a tri-match at Clay High School on Saturday.