FLOYDS KNOBS
In a sectional full of Hoosier Hills Conference rivals, it was highly likely the Seymour Owls volleyball team would get a rematch with a familiar foe.
Fortunately, for the Owls, it was against a Jeffersonville Red Devils team they had beaten once before. Doing so in straight sets on September 9 in Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
Though it didn’t go as smoothly as their first meeting, the Owls replicated their earlier victory with a straight-sets win over the Red Devils (25-21, 28-26, 25-18) to open their sectional journey.
“Jeffersonville played really hard,” Seymour coach Angie Lucas said. “But we responded well. We’ve been working really hard in practice all week and it paid off for us tonight.”
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryA sloppy first set by Jeffersonville played into Seymour’s hands as the Red Devils committed 12 first-set errors for easy Owl points to off set nine errors committed by Seymour.
Errors still showed up in a stressful set two that saw six ties within the final few points.
After leading by as many five points in the set, the Owls allowed the Red Devils to creep back into the match and let them take the lead 25-24.
Yet, behind an ace from Hayley Harpe and another forced Jeffersonville error by the Owls, they were able to hang onto the set.
Both teams picked up right where they left off in the third set, not willing to concede an inch and battling hard for each point.
But a mini 3-0 run by the Owls midway through the set gave theM enough cushion to make Jeffersonville uneasy.
The tiny lead is what drove the Owls to victory according to Lucas.
“It was huge,” Lucas said. “It was back and forth and all three sets were close; we knew it would it be.”
That led to more Jeffersonville mistakes and the Owls kept pouring it on to pull away and win the final set comfortably.
Owls win set three 25-18 and take the match over Jeffersonville. They'll play in semifinal against New Albany on Saturday at 1 pm pic.twitter.com/Z7EFODhd0B
— 🍂Dylan Trimpe🍂 (@Trimp3) October 18, 2019
The Owls were led by a trio of attackers, most notably junior Maggie Connell, who had 10 kills and was 25 of 30 on attacking attempts. Fellow junior Lauren Knieriem and senior Sophia Stahl had five kills each.
Stahl also lit up the serving stats for Seymour with two aces. She had a sequence in the third set where the Owls won multiple points in a row to pull away.
Fellow senior Chloe Criswell also had two aces for the Owls while Harpe had 28 assists.
Seymour will take on HCC rival New Albany in the second semifinal on Saturday at 1 p.m. following the conclusion of the Providence and Floyd Central match that starts at 11 a.m.
The Bulldogs downed the Owls last month in straight sets, but the closely-contested matchup could have swung either way. New Albany only won 25-21, 25-23, 25-23.
Seniors Stahl and Criswell led the charge on the attack with seven and six kills, respectively in their previous encounter with New Albany.