For The Tribune

HOPE

The Seymour volleyball team showed some fight against Hauser by going toe-to-toe in a number of long volleys and jumping out to an early lead in the second set.

Owls coach Holly Birdsong said the second set was one of the better sets her team has played all season but said her team still is having a hard time finishing out a game. Seymour fell to the Jets 25-15, 25-23, 25-19.

“There were a lot longer volleys tonight and a lot more effort given towards plays,” Birdsong said. “Just the execution of the final play, putting the ball down or stopping the other team from putting a ball down just didn’t quite go our way.”

Hauser (14-2) controlled much of the first set, but the Owls started the second set by scoring six of the first seven points. Seymour led by as many as six points before Hauser slowly cut the lead to 23-21. The Jets took the final four points to win the set, despite having seven missed serves.

“I think our defense made some good effort tonight in getting a lot of balls up,” Birdsong said. “We had a lot of scrappy plays that we haven’t had in the past few games, which is nice to see. Girls were working hard to get after the ball. We just need to have a little bit more control to get the points for our team.”

The Owls (2-15) battled with Hauser in the third set and found themselves tied at 15. The Jets scored seven consecutive points to pull away and held off Seymour for the win.

Birdsong said the game helped show her players that they can compete at a high level.

“I think that they can see whenever they play that hard and games are that close that they are capable of playing with teams like Hauser and some of the other teams we’ve played recently,” Birdsong said. “They just have to know that they can do it and keep working off of that effort.”

Jessica Blevins led the Owls with 12 kills and two blocks and 11 digs. Emily Corcoran recorded 19 digs. Abby Schmidt pounded six kills and led the team with two aces. Sophia Stahl had 15 assists.