Lady Tigers beat Hillsboro in 4 sets
Lead Summary
By
Jim Jones-
GREENFIELD — The McClain Lady Tigers celebrated senior night while hosting cross-county and league rival Hillsboro Thursday (Oct. 6) in what proved to be another tough and hard-fought battle just like their previous two earlier in the season.
It took four sets and a lot of determination for the Lady Tigers to gain the exciting and well-played South Central Ohio League contest win before a large crowd in the McClain gym.
“Any time you play McClain, the games are always a battle and closely played, but a lot of fun,” Hillsboro head coach Nichole Dickey said after the match. “Both teams’ girls are very good friends because they know each other well from playing club volleyball together in the summer.
“My girls played hard but still struggled a lot with their serve-and-receive, so we need to clean that up a little before going into the tournament.”
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In the first game of the night, the Lady Indians jumped out to an early 6-0 advantage, but McClain came storming back with an 8-0 run to grab the lead at 8-6.
Senior Sara Bennett served all eight points for the Lady Tigers in the run. After Hillsboro retook the lead 10-8 moments later, McClain got four straight points from the serving of senior Malea Montavon and went back on top 12-10.
The Lady Tigers stayed ahead the rest of the game and held on for a 25-20 first set victory. McClain won game two comfortably by a 25-10 count, but the Lady Indians bounced back in the third set to pull out another hard-fought 25-19 win to force a fourth set.
Game four was another exciting set early that the Lady Tigers won 25-12 to take the match.
“My seniors had a great night, and I thought everyone played extremely well,” McClain head coach Emma Gall said. “We went with a different player rotation in this match, and it looks like it might be something that could work well for us heading into the tournament.
“I had Kenzie Anderson play libero for us tonight, and she did a great job of passing the ball, and Sara Bennett did a nice job of setting the ball.”
It was the last regular-season home game for McClain seniors Malea Montavon, Kenzie Anderson, Lexie Barton, Sara Bennett, Riley Williams and Molly Black.
“I’m really going to miss this group of seniors and their energy,” Gall said. “They have also brought so much leadership to all of our younger players both on and off the court, and their leadership will be hard to replace.”
McClain improves to 15-6 on the season.
It took four sets and a lot of determination for the Lady Tigers to gain the exciting and well-played South Central Ohio League contest win before a large crowd in the McClain gym.
“Any time you play McClain, the games are always a battle and closely played, but a lot of fun,” Hillsboro head coach Nichole Dickey said after the match. “Both teams’ girls are very good friends because they know each other well from playing club volleyball together in the summer.
“My girls played hard but still struggled a lot with their serve-and-receive, so we need to clean that up a little before going into the tournament.”
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In the first game of the night, the Lady Indians jumped out to an early 6-0 advantage, but McClain came storming back with an 8-0 run to grab the lead at 8-6.
Senior Sara Bennett served all eight points for the Lady Tigers in the run. After Hillsboro retook the lead 10-8 moments later, McClain got four straight points from the serving of senior Malea Montavon and went back on top 12-10.
The Lady Tigers stayed ahead the rest of the game and held on for a 25-20 first set victory. McClain won game two comfortably by a 25-10 count, but the Lady Indians bounced back in the third set to pull out another hard-fought 25-19 win to force a fourth set.
Game four was another exciting set early that the Lady Tigers won 25-12 to take the match.
“My seniors had a great night, and I thought everyone played extremely well,” McClain head coach Emma Gall said. “We went with a different player rotation in this match, and it looks like it might be something that could work well for us heading into the tournament.
“I had Kenzie Anderson play libero for us tonight, and she did a great job of passing the ball, and Sara Bennett did a nice job of setting the ball.”
It was the last regular-season home game for McClain seniors Malea Montavon, Kenzie Anderson, Lexie Barton, Sara Bennett, Riley Williams and Molly Black.
“I’m really going to miss this group of seniors and their energy,” Gall said. “They have also brought so much leadership to all of our younger players both on and off the court, and their leadership will be hard to replace.”
McClain improves to 15-6 on the season.