A strong offensive performance and improved defense carried the Seymour High School volleyball team to a 3-0 victory against Scottsburg Thursday at the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
The Owls soundly defeated the Warriors 25-15, 25-18, 25-17 and only lost the lead in the final set.
Coach Angie Lucas said she felt like the victory was a step forward for the team (8-9) because Scottsburg has an improved program and the Owls were able to keep them off their feet and secure the win.
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“It was a good night for us, but we still need to work on things we’ve been stressing in practice,” she said. “I think this was a good win for us.”
Keeping the Warriors off balance was shown throughout the night as the Owls were able to pound the ball low and on all areas of the floor.
The team also forced the Warriors to make significant errors to lead to large runs throughout each of the sets.
In the first set, the Owls showed command by leading the entire set, but did struggle to establish a run until late in the set.
Makenna Fee began serving when the set reached 17-11 in favor of the Owls. Fee took the Owls on a five point run. Both teams exchanged points until the Owls eventually won the set 25-16 on a hard hit from Sarah Kaufman.
Fee led the Owls on serving, going 16-16 with five aces. She also led the team with 20 assists.
Much of the set featured back-and-forth points between the two teams.
The Owls jumped to a quick start in the second set when they went up 17-5 behind runs from Jessica Blevins, Fee and Kaufman. Blevins led the team in hitting, going 28-28 with 13 kills.
The Owls’ strong start quickly evaporated when the Warriors’ Audrey LaMaster scored six straight points to bring the team back into contention 17-12.
The two teams exchanged points and the Warriors were only down 20-17 until the Owls took off with more points by Fee to seal the second-set win.
Lucas said the second set of the night was an example of how the team has played this season.
“We get going and then we make several errors in a row,” she said. Much of that can be attributed to a young roster, Lucas said. “It’s sign of a young team, it’s a sign of an inexperienced team, even though we have a lot of kids that played last year on this team.”
The team is also learning a new scheme.
“They’re learning a new way of doing things, so they let up,” she said. “It’s mental toughness, which is something we’ve been working on.”
The two teams duked it out in the third set when the Warriors tied the Owls and took the lead for the first time in the match.
The Owls jumped to a quick 3-0 start, but the Warriors took scored four straight points from Hannah Brown to bring the score 4-3 in favor of Scottsburg.
Both teams battled back-and-forth and Seymour took a lead before the Warriors bounced back and lead the Owls 13-11.
Carlee Robinson then led the Owls on a six-point charge that gave the Owls a 19-13 lead.
The Warriors were not able to recover and the Owls won 25-17 to capture the sweep.
Hayley Harpe led the Owls with 18 defensive digs.
Lucas said she’d like to see the team improve its positions on defense and blocking, which is something she’s worked on with the group along with its communication.
“We had a pretty tough practice last night, so I was hoping they would perform at a high level and I felt like they did that,” she said. “I think the communication also improved.”