Lady Lions sweep Lady ’Cats in 3 sets

LEESBURG — After a tough first set where the Fairfield Lady Lions were able to fend off the visiting Whiteoak Lady Wildcats, the host Lady Lions were able to control the next two sets as they swept their Highland County and conference rival in three sets at Grandle Gymnasium.

The Thursday night win by Fairfield saw Fairfield win by scores of 25-18, 25-08 and 25-15.

Fairfield’s victory keeps them undefeated in the Southern Hills Athletic Conference this season as they currently sit at 6-0, with the lead in the Division II SHAC standings, while having a 7-12 overall record. Whiteoak is 1-5 in the SHAC Division II standings and 1-8 overall.

On Thursday in set one, Fairfield led early 2-0, but Whiteoak tied the score at 2-2 and eventually built a 6-3 lead with help from an ace by Oakley Engle and consecutive points scored by Kylee Hamm.

Eventually, Fairfield tied the score at 6-6 with a kill and ace from Jobey Hattan. FHS built their lead to 8-6 with help from one of the two points from Jaeden Drury at the net. The score was tied for a third time at 9-9 as WHS scored one of the set-tying points off a serve by Maddison Schum.

As the set continued, the score was tied at 10-10 and 11-11, but it was the Lady Lions building a two-point lead at 14-12, then to 15-13, but WHS got to within a point at 16-15 off a point scored by Hamm.

After that point, Fairfield built a 19-15 lead with Kelsey Clark, Mackenzie Anderson and Alyssa Bales all contributing to the scoring for a four-point lead at 19-15, forcing Whiteoak to call a timeout.

Following the timeout, FHS kept the lead until the end of the set, building a 23-18 lead with Jorja May and Hattan scoring two of the points, with eventually FHS winning set one at 25-18.

Fairfield head coach Jerrica Stackhouse spoke about the first set and the rest of the following two sets.

“The first set we were very flat, so in between the first and second sets we talked about everything, and the girls turned it around,” Stackhouse said. “We simply talked about how we can’t wait 23 points to decide to turn it on. We can’t do that with any team, let alone Whiteoak and the rest of the SHAC.

“Our consistency could have been a little bit better with our serving throughout the game, but our front row, anybody that was out there did a great job playing the net. Alyssa Bales, I thought she played lights out.

“I’m happy to have all my players back,” Stackhouse continued. “We haven’t had our full lineup but two times this season due to sickness and injuries.”

From start to finish in set two, the Lady Lions controlled the tempo, starting by building a 7-0 lead off serves by McKinley Cox (including a couple aces), as WHS called a timeout.

The lead went to 8-0, and after Whiteoak scored their first point of the second set, FHS went ahead by a 15-1 score as Hattan, Clark, Drury and Anderson all made big plays, with Drury scoring multiple points at the net.

Anderson had a kill for a 16-3 Fairfield lead, and Clark made it an 18-3 score. WHS came back with a point at the net off a play by Marley Gobin and Hamm, but as the set continued the Lady Lions pulled away for the win with aces by Remi Moon, and the set ended with an out-of-play hit by WHS for the 25-08 score.

Fairfield in set three scored the first points, and from there the score was tied at 1-1, 4-4 and 5-5 as the Lady Lions had a couple points scored by Mya McIntosh, while WHS had points scored by Kylee Ruark and Engle.

The Lady Lions had three points in a row scored by Hattan, and a kill from Anderson left FHS in the lead by a 9-5 score. An ace from Whiteoak’s Elly McMullen made it a 9-7 score, but FHS never lost the lead for the rest of set three. Kills by Hattan and Clark, along with a point by Moon, left FHS with a set-three win of 25-19 as the final serve by Bales ended the set and match.

Whiteoak head coach Kara Moon-Stone spoke about the game.

“We were down our varsity setter this week, so that's kind of put a damper on our lineup. I have a sophomore setter Charli (Hauke) setting at varsity for the first time, so she's brand-new experience,” Moon-Stone said. “She did great stepping in. There's a couple things player position-wise that are new. The girls showed up for the first set, the battle was 18-25, no complaints.

“I think they just dropped their momentum, dropped their heads on that second set, got down a few points, and then I don't think the girls felt that there was a fighting chance to get out of that second set for a while. It's unfortunate. It's always a high-intensity game when we play Fairfield. It’s usually a good battle, but tonight just wasn't it for us.”

Leaders for FHS were Hattan with 17 kills, Clark with 25 assists, Cox with four aces, Bales with 10 digs and Anderson with two blocks.

As a team, FHS finished with 31 kills, 29 assists, 14 aces, 36 digs and four blocks.

Next for Fairfield is a game Friday, Sept. 13 on the road at North Adams. Whiteoak is scheduled to play again Friday, Sept. 13 at home vs. Ripley.

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