Hillsboro wins in 3 sets over McClain

GREENFIELD — The McClain and Hillsboro varsity volleyball teams played for a third time this season Thursday in Greenfield at McClain Gym, and it was a third straight time that the Lady Indians were victorious over their county and conference rival.

Hillsboro won the first game of the match 25-11, leading from start to finish.

In game two McClain regrouped and came out excited, with a little more enthusiasm, and battled to the very end before losing a close one, 25-21 in what proved to be the most competitive set of the match.

In the third and final set of the night the Lady Indians won in almost a carbon copy of the first one by a 25-7 score.

“I thought in the first and third sets my girls really stepped up and played more to their level, but in the second set they seemed to have a little let down,” Hillsboro head coach Heather Jones said. “Our defense has really been the strength of our team all year and in that first and third set you were able to see that.

“My front row has been playing very well along with our passers who have learned how to read the ball better and have focused on not letting the ball drop.”

Despite losing, McClain’s first-year head coach Cierra Bolender still saw some positive things from her young team.

“I was really proud of our defense tonight,” Bolender said, “That was our main topic in practice yesterday and our pre-game today. I thought our blocking and coverage was really good and I’m very happy with how well we passed and blocked in this match.

“We had over 30 errors in the match tonight and that really makes it hard to win and that seems to be where we always start shooting ourselves in the foot.

“I’m still really proud of our overall effort tonight.”

It was senior night for three McClain seniors, Lillie Saunders, Zoie Everhart and Lydia Beatty, and Coach Bolender spoke about them after the match.

“My three seniors have been amazing literally from day one after I was hired until today," Bolender said. "They have been so supportive and such a great help in building relationships and a culture that we wanted to build from the beginning.

“They’re the ones with the experience, not me, so we’ve had a lot of tough conversations, and I really value their opinions and how open they were to talking with me about them.

“So, they’re going to be greatly missed and hard to replace, and I’m very thankful for them and what they’ve given to this program.”

McClain closes out the regular season when they host Westfall on Wednesday, Oct. 8.