Peebles’ Elly Richards, left, goes up for a kill attempt over Manchester’s Bristynn McClanahan (1) in action from the Lady Indians’ straight set win on September 17. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Southern Hills Athletic Conference volleyball came to Peebles High School on September 17 as the Lady Indians played host to the Manchester Lady Greyhounds. The Lady Indians were working to get their season mark closer to the .500 mark and extend their winning streak to three matches while the shorthanded Lady Hounds were still searching for victory number one on the year.
The Lady Hounds were without senior hitter, out for an undetermined time with an injury and according to head coach Aaliyah Smith, the Manchester girls were still adapting to new rotations and responsibilities and even though they put up quite a battle in the night’s first set, the Lady Indians took control from that point on and took the match in straight sets, 27-25, 25-17, 25-14.
Watching the first set, one would never have guessed that the Lady Hounds were a winless squad as they put up quite a battle, sending the set into volleyball overtime. The set was tight all the way, tied at 13 until a series of service points by Peebles’ Kaelyn Musser that put the Lady Indians up by four. The home team retained that lead until Manchester’s Bristynn McClanahan stepped to the service line and reeled four straight points, aided by a Maddie Dunn kills, and cut the Peebles lead to 22-21. A call of a Manchester player in the net put the Lady Indians at set point (24-22) but the Lady Hounds garnered three points with Dunn serving to get their own set point, leading 25-24. Peebles bounced back, however, to score the set’s last three tallies, winning the tight first set 27-25.
The valiant effort in the opening set may have taken some of the energy out of the Lady Hounds as they stumbled out of the gate in set number two. With Angel Gray stepping up her game at then et and senior Abigail Smalley serving, the Lady Indians jumped out to an 11-3 advantage and were never seriously threatened. Manchester could just never seem to string a run of points together to get back in the set, though a later rally led by the serves of Abby Neria pulled them within 24-17, but Peebles grabbed the final point and took a 2-0 lead in the set with the 25-17 win.
Manchester took a quick 3-1 lead in the third set, only to watch it disappear and turn into a 7-6 Peebles advantage. After regaining the side out and taking that one-point lead, the Lady Indians sent Smalley back to serve and she put on a show, rattling off nine consecutive points, getting kills from Musser and Ella Richards, and the home team now as on top 16-6.
Though again the Lady Hounds battled, but the deficit was far too much to overcome. The visitors closed the gap to 23-14 late but a Lady Hounds’ service error and a return that went long gave the third set to the home side as well as the match, 3-0.
Two nights later the Lady Indians suffered a conference loss to Lynchburg-Clay, leaving their overall season record at 5-8 (4-4 SHAC). The Lady Hounds also took a conference loss on September 19 at Fairfield, leaving them at 0-10 for the year , 0-7 in conference play.
