The Seymour and New Albany volleyball teams had two five-set battles this season, and both matches came out exactly the same.
The latest match came on Thursday night in the Seymour Class 4A Sectional with Seymour winning 23-25, 21-25, 25-22, 25-16, 15-8. The matchup took place inside the Lloyd E. Scott Gymnasium.
In the Hoosier Hills Conference match played Sept. 21, the Owls lost the first two sets then came roaring back to win the next three sets.
Coach Angie Lucas credited aggressive serving to turning around the third set Thursday night.
“We started serving a little bit more aggressively, and I felt we cleaned up our first contact,” she said. “We made a couple of adjustments on defense, and the girls did really well responding to what we asked them to do.”
The Bulldogs were hot at the start of the first two sets, leading 2-0 in the first set and 4-0 in the second set. The first set was tied 16 times, the last at 22-all, before the Bulldogs scored three of the final four points.
The Owls used their blocking game to keep it close as Anna Fish, Emerson Johnson and Journee Brown all came up with some effective blocks.
“Blocking has been something we’ve been working on. We still have work to do on it but it helped us so much in sets three, four and five,” Lucas said.
The last tie in the second set came at 15-15. Seymour stayed close, trailing 19-18, before the Bulldogs’ 4-0 run was too much to overcome.
A kill by Fish gave the Owls a 9-6 lead in the third set before New Albany jumped ahead 14-12. Another kill by Fish started the Owls on a 4-0 run, and they stayed in front the rest of the way as Fish had a kill for set point.
A kill by Norah Campbell put the Owls on top 7-3 in the fourth set, and an ace by Campbell extended Seymour’s lead to 12-7. A kill by Campbell, a block by Johnson and an ace by Baker pushed Seymour’s lead to 15-9, and Johnson had a kill for set point.
Seymour opened a 3-0 lead in the fifth set to lead all the way. A kill by Johnson made the score 6-1, an ace by Johnson set the score at 10-2 and a block by Brown gave Seymour a 14-3 lead before New Albany rallied to score five straight points to a 14-8 score before an attacking error by the Bulldogs ended the match.
Brown topped the Owls in kills with 16, Johnson had 12 and Campbell 11 as the team finished with 52.
The Owls were 99-108-9 in serves with Baker 19-19-1, Brown 14-15-1 and Johnson 17-19-2.
Lucas said assistant coach Hannah Sipe did a good job of telling the Owls where to place their serves.
“Hannah calls the zones for our serving,” she said. “She gave some of those kids short serves, and they executed them, and it threw them off. I think that helped win this match.”
Fish topped the team in assists with 26, and Baker had 14 digs.
“It was one of those matches where we knew it was going to be a battle because we battled them hard the first time we played them,” Lucas said. “We knew what was expected, and they are well-coached and I really think a lot of Ryan (Woosley) and his program.”
The Owls are 18-14 going into Saturday’s 11 a.m. match with Jennings County (19-12). The Panthers beat the Owls in three sets on Aug. 31. The Owls have won 15 of their last 17 matches.
Lucas said she is hoping her team can get off to a better start than they did Thursday night.
“That’s what I would hope with the tournament being here,” she said. “We want to take advantage of that. Blocking and serving are two things that have really helped down the stretch.”
Serving:
Good Serves-Attempts-Aces
Emerson Johnson, 17-19-2, Raeann Baker, 14-15-2, Journee Brown, 19-19-1
Team: 99-108-9
Hitting:
Good Attempts-Attempts-Kills
Emerson Johnson, 31-32-12. Journee Brown, 21-23-16, Norah Campbell, 24-27-11.
Team: 123-135-52
Assists- Anna Fish, 26
Defensive Digs- Raeann Baker, 14