Manchester girls move to sectional finals at Eastern Pike –
By Mark Carpenter –
The postseason got off to a successful start on Monday, Oct. 15 for the Manchester Lady Greyhounds as they hosted the Sciotoville East Lady Tartans in an opening round Division IV sectional tournament game. The Lady Hounds were on their game at tourney time, disposing of the visiting Lady Tartans in less than an hour and in three straight sets, 25-7, 25-12, 25-18.
The Lady Hounds had already defeated East once this season, back on Sept. 22 in the Kissick Klassik, and had little trouble with the Lady Tartans on Monday night, never trailing the entire match, led by a strong serving game and some solid play around the net by sophomore Brooke Kennedy and her teammates.
“We played pretty well tonight,” said Manchester head coach Kaci Compton. “We didn’t make nearly as many errors as we did last time we played them and that made a difference. In slow-paced game, it’s easy for the girls to get sluggish and fatigued and we can’t get caught sleeping.”
“We did a lot of substituting tonight because I wanted to get everyone some playing time on their home court for the last time this season. Macy has a killer serve and was really on her game tonight, a senior leading by example for us.”
Manchester began to establish dominance as the first set began with senior Macy Huron serving them to a 3-0 lead, which later expanded to 6-1 with senior Aaliyah Smith at the service line. A later kill by Mackenzie Leadingham made it 10-3 and a pair of service points from Kylie Abbott combined with kills by Smith and freshman Hannah Hobbs put the Lady Hounds in the driver’s seat, up 17-7. That brought Huron back up to serve and she took care of business in a big way, serving out the final eight points of the set as the Lady Hounds rolled 25-7.
Early in the second set, it was Leadingham dominating at the service line, reeling off seven in succession to give her team a 12-3 advantage on the scoreboard. The Lady Tartans stayed within striking distance but that changed rapidly when Manchester senior Madison Young was inserted into the rotation to serve and with the assistance of a pair of Kennedy kills, served five in a row to give the Lady Hounds a commanding 22-8 lead.
East temporarily rebounded with a run of three points but a service error by the Lady Tartans and a service ace by Kennedy was all the home team needed to wrap up the second set 25-12 and take a 2-0 lead in the match.
After struggling through the first two sets, the Lady Tartans put up a much better showing in the third, even though the score may not have indicated that. Service aces by Karigan Turner, Kennedy, and Leadingham propelled the home side to a 12-4 advantage, but East chipped away at the lead, later drawing back to within 20-13.
After two points for Manchester, the Lady Tartans grabbed five of the next six to make things interesting and cut the home team’s lead to 23-18., but that was all for the visitors. A carry was called on East and fittingly, an emphatic kill from Kennedy was the final point in a 25-18 third set triumph for the Lady Hounds as they took the match in straight sets and moved on to the Division IV sectional finals.
Next up for the Manchester ladies was a trip to Eastern Pike on Thursday, Oct. 18, playing for a trip to the district tournament next week.
“Eastern Pike has a really good program but I think our girls are ready for the challenge,” said Coach Compton.
The report on that game appears in the Oct. 24 edition of The People’s Defender.