Ark Valley News - Hornets split home triangular

Alora Klinkhammer pounds one off the tape for a kill against Goddard Sept. 8.

Hornets split home triangular
By Randy Fisher
Last Updated: September 10, 2015

Playing at home for the first time this season, the Valley Center High School volleyball team reverted to some old habits it showed in the season-opening tournament. Consequently, the Hornets split a league triangular Sept. 8. They beat Goddard 25-10, 25-22 and lost to Eisenhower 18-25, 21-25. Valley is now 4-6 on the season and 2-1 in AVCTL Div. II action.

"Again, very good points and then very opposite," said coach Holly Rutter. "The Jekyll and Hyde effect."

Rutter believes the Hornets are still struggling with the mental aspect of the game.

"That's the one thing we really, really, really need to key in on and work on," she said. "We either get ourselves in a hole, or we led a lead slip and we just can't seem to go to the winning side of that."

Valley's second match of the night against Eisenhower perhaps had the most significance, as each team was undefeated in league. Both sets were close for a while. Eventually, Eisenhower (8-2) would put together a run or two and break things open.

The first set was tied nine times before the Tigers pulled away. After Reagan Fischer tied the score at 10, Teagan Wilson's shot down the line gave Valley its first lead, 11-10.

But the Tigers roared back with four straight points to take a 14-11 lead. Valley tied the score at 14 and 15 before taking another one-point advantage at 16-15 on Kyli Webber's push into the deep corner.

After that, it was all Eisenhower. The Tigers scored six straight to go up 21-16. Kailey Pearson dinked one over to make it 21-17. It appeared that Eisenhower scored the next point, which would have given it a five-point lead. The up official called a net violation on the Tigers and the two-point swing cut their lead to three, 21-18. The Hornets could not take advantage of the situation, as Eisenhower scored the next four points and won 25-18.

Set No. 2 saw Valley hit a run of its own to go in front. Webber's cross-court kill in the corner tied the score at 2. With Miranda Dessenberger serving, the Hornets reeled off five in a row for a 7-2 lead. During this run, Marisa Rodriguez scored on a block, Webber had another kill and the Tigers committed three errors.

Valley extended its lead to 9-3 before the roof fell in. Eisenhower went on an 11-1 run to grab the lead for good at 14-10. Leading 15-12, the Tigers ripped off four more unanswered points.

Down 23-16, Pearson started a run with a kill. Evann Shelton sandwiched a pair of service aces around an Emily Klusener kill off a quick set and suddenly it is 23-20. But the Hornets could get no closer, as the Tigers eased to the 25-22 win.

Earlier in the evening, the Hornets had no trouble with Goddard in the first set. They broke a 3-3 tie with a 9-0 run to take control. After Klusener gave Valley a 4-3 lead and side out, Webber served eight straight points, including five aces, for a 12-3 lead. The Hornets expanded that advantage with a 5-0 for a 19-9 lead. They went on to win 25-10.

The second set was much different, however, as the Lions wouldn't go away, taking an 8-6 lead. Behind Wilson's serving, the Hornets eased in front 11-8 and never trailed the rest of the game. Goddard did pull to within one point three times, the latest being at 20-19, but no closer. Valley went on to post a 25-22 victory.

Rutter praised the play of her libero Shelton and defensive specialist Wilson.

"Evann and Teagan got a lot of balls, especially Evann on digs," Rutter said. "They passed pretty well. We just couldn't hit the ball."

One person who could hit the ball was Webber, who finished with 16 kills. Valley needs other players to step up as well if it is going to have the kind of success it wants.

"We can't wait for Kyli to do everything," Rutter said. "She's been doing great, and I love that, but everyone else has got to get on board with it, too."

JV sweeps — Valley's junior varsity won both matches by nearly identical scores, beating Goddard 25-15, 25-15 and Eisenhower 25-15, 25-17. It was the third straight win for the 3-1 Hornets.

"We did a lot better at the net with our blocking and reading their hitters," said coach Kyrie McKee. "We were able to block and get some touches off their hitters."

McKee said Emma Meyer, Alex Sparks and Emily Kemp did "awesome" job passing.

"I don't think there were any aces off them, and they scored a lot perfect passes off the serve," McKee said. "Their serve receive looked really, really, really good."

Setters Ashlyn Joyal and Libby Schurle continued to impress McKee with their play.

Frosh go 2-1 — Playing a quadrangular Sept. 3 at Goddard, the freshmen won two out of three. The Hornets lost to Eisenhower 11-25, 17-25, and then beat Goddard 21-25, 27-25, 15-7 and Ark City 21-25, 25-17, 15-7

Valley coach Kaitlin Woellhof said the Hornets were sluggish against the Tigers and had trouble effectively communicating.

"After the first match against Eisenhower, we switched from a 6-2 to a 5-1," she said. "I am very proud of the girls and how they responded to a completely new rotation midway through the quad. Things finally started to click and we were able to come out 2-1 on the night."

Drew Maule had five aces, Faith Stacy had five kills and Abigail Weldon had five digs against Goddard. Destini McNeil had four kills, while Maddie Eckert and Maule each had four aces against Ark City.