By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
For Coach Kiersten Rowe and her West Union Lady Dragons varsity volleyball squad, it wasn’t the start they hoped for their 2023 season. With a mix of youth and veteran presence, the Lady Dragons looked at 2023 as a season where they could make huge improvements, especially in conference play. But that improvement was not evident on Monday night as the West Union girls traveled to Ripley for both teams’ Southern Hills Athletic Conference opener.
In Monday night’s match, the Lady Dragons looked flat most of the night, lost a tough first set and then never really seemed to recover. Under the direction of first-year head coach Kim Cooper, the Lady Jays began their season in successful fashion, downing the visiting Lady Dragons in straight sets, 25-22, 25-17, 25-21.
In the first set of action, the host Lady Jays flew to a quick 5-0 lead on the serves of sophomore Harlie Polley,and never trailed the rest of the set. The Lady Dragons cut the deficit down to just one, 15-14, on a service ace by junior Ashlah Staten, and got it back to one again at 21-20 after back to back kills from senior hitter Korynne Blanton. The next three points went to the home team, who clinched the set when a West Union return found its way into the net, 25-22 Ripley.
The first set loss seemed to take the wind out of the West Union sails as the Lady Jays dominated the opening moments of set number two. Behind the strong service work of Polley once again, plus kills from Callie Fultz and Brooke Sims, Ripley led 9-1. A later service ace from Fultz along with a Harmony Fowler kill kept the home team up 13-2.
The Lady Dragons tried to chip away at that big Ripley lead, getting points off serve from senior Elayna Kingsolver and freshman Maddie Stout and a string of five points for West Union closed the gap to 14-10. Later, the Lady Dragons pulled within 18-15 only to see the Lady Jays reel off five straight with Fultz serving and when a Sims tip found an empty spot on the West Union side, the home team took set two, 25-17.
With their backs firmly planted against the all, the Lady Dragons opened the third set with Blanton at the serve and that resulted in a 4-0 advantage, but unfortunately for the guests, that momentum didn’t stick around for the rest of the set. West Union extended their lead to 10-3 and looked like they may have finally gotten things together, only to see the Lady Jays erupt for seven straight points, again with Fultz handling the service duties. The next side out went to West Union but that only proceeded three more points for Ripley that gave the home side the lead for good.
As the third set wore on, the Lady Dragons narrowed the Ripley lead to one point on three occasions, but with Polley yet again handling the serve, the Lady Jays stretched their advantage out to 21-16. A pair of Blanton kills kept the dim West Union hopes alive as they drew within 24-21 but the match came to a close when a Blanton kill attempt that looked to be perfectly placed was incorrectly ruled out of bounds, giving Ripley the third set 25-21 and the match in three straight.
“We had some first game jitters and didn’t play to the best of our abilities and it showed in the outcome of the game,” said Coach Rowe. “I still have high hopes for our team this year and hope with our next game we come ready to play.”
After the season-opening loss, the Lady Dragons (0-1) had little time to regroup as they were back in action on Tuesday night, hosting the Northwest Lady Mohawks in non-conference play, then will be back in action on Thursday, August 24 with a road trip to Eastern Brown.