Lady Tigers volleyball knocks off Jackson on senior night

The McClain varsity volleyball team jumped out to an early 2-1 lead after three sets but had to rally at the end and hold on to defeat Jackson in a five-set marathon match, highlighting senior night for six Lady Tigers players Tuesday in Greenfield.

“I told my girls before the match that Jackson was a good team who went five with us down there, and it’s a team you can’t let up on because they are capable of taking you to five sets again,” McClain head coach Taylor Alsop said.

And that was exactly what happened in this one. After McClain won game one 25-17 and the second game 25-21, the Lady Ironladies fought back, winning game three 25-21 and game four 25-23 to force a deciding fifth set.

“I think what hurt us in the third and fourth sets was that we made too many unforced errors and missed a lot of our serving opportunities, and that meant points,” Alsop said. “I think it was six or seven times we made serving mistakes, which was huge, especially when we lost those two games by six total points.”

In the fifth and deciding set, Coach Alsop didn’t substitute anyone and played all of her seniors, who regrouped and pulled out the game 15-7 and the match 3-2, which put an exclamation mark on an already festive evening.

“In that fifth set, I didn’t make any substitutions and kept my seniors in there and let them do their thing, and it worked out well for us,” Alsop said. “They really wanted to win this match on senior night.”

Six talented seniors were recognized before the match — Katie Cook, Kylea Toney, Brenna Wright, Anna Eikenberry, Sarah Easter and Madalyn Giffin — who as a group have brought lots of leadership, hard work and excitement into this season.

Coach Alsop talked after the match about what these six seniors have meant to her and the program over the last several years.

“I’ve been with these six seniors in some capacity or another since they were in the seventh grade,” Alsop said. “Either by helping out with their middle school growth or coaching them all at the high school level. this is definitely a group that I’ve been heavily involved with. Two of them have been with me since they were freshmen, and the other four have played for me at the varsity level since their sophomore and junior years.

“They are a group of girls that I can put at any position, and they will do whatever it takes to make it work, so, it’s a group that I’m very close to that have worked hard in every match and they will be greatly missed and extremely hard to replace.”

McClain played at Miami Trace Thursday, Sept. 26, falling 3-0. They travel to Chillicothe next Tuesday, Oct. 1, before returning home Thursday, Oct. 5 to play Hillsboro.

Individual stats for McClain:

• Serving: Anna Eikenberry 19-23 (3 aces), Sarah Easter 29-29 (ace), Brenna Wright 14-17 (ace), Kylea Toney 8-11 (ace), Madalyn Giffin 7-8 (ace), Leah Lovett 5-6 (ace).

• Digs: Wright 24, Giffin 17, Easter 14, Cook 12, Eikenberry 10, Toney 9, Lillie Saunders 4.

• Attacking: Toney 46-53 (14 kills), Eikenberry 39-44 (13 kills), Wright 31-34 (11 kills), Giffin 17-21 (7 kills), Lydia Beatty 12-14 (4 kills), Easter 13-14 (2 kills), Lovett 3-3 (2 kills).

• Serve Receiving: Wright 25-25, Toney 25-27, Cook 18-19, Giffin 7-7, Eikenberry 3-7, Zoie Everhart 3-5.

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