In West Union’s win over Eastern Brown on October 3, sophomore Maddie Stout picked up her 500th dig. (Photo provided)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
The past couple of weeks haven’t been kind to Coach Kiersten Rowe and her West Union Lady Dragons varsity volleyball squad and they faced a tough Southern Hills Athletic Conference challenge on October 2 as they entertained one of the top teams in the small school division of the conference, the Fayetteville Lady Rockets. Fayetteville came in as the second place squad in the small school, while the Lady Dragons had dropped four of their last five matches and were without senior setter Ashleh Staten, who will miss the rest of the season after knee surgery.
On this night, the West Union squad was plagued by many of the issues that have eaten at them all season, a tough time returning serves and the inability to string together a successful run of points. The Lady Rockets took advantage of that and handed the home team a straight set defeat, 25-10, 25-16, 25-14.
The theme for the night may have been established in the first set as the Lady Rockets soared to a huge 14-2 lead, garnering five service aces in that run. The Lady Dragons finally got some sense of their bearings and managed to claim a few points but could never get the deficit below double digits. A kill by West Union’s Shelbi Weakley late in the set wasn’t near enough as Fayetteville took the first big, 25-10.
With Maddie Stout on serve, the Lady Dragons led 2-0 early in the second set and battled to keep the score close, but the Lady Rockets used kills from Victoria Thompson and freshman Tegan Combs to open up a 12-6 advantage. The hosts rallied back with four of the next six points, again with Stout serving, to pull within 14-10, and later got back to 17-14 on the strength of a pair of Weakley kills, another by Jocelyn Hall and a service ace from Annabelle McIntosh.
That run didn’t last for the home side as Fayetteville reeled off five straight to extend their lead to eight, then won the second set on a West Union service error, 25-16.
The third set was do or die for the Lady Dragons but again they fell behind early as the Lady Rockets dominated the net, getting kills from Thompson and Christina Murphy to take a 7-3 lead. A pair of service aces from Kale Garrison brought West Union to within one, but they just couldn’t string together enough points to ever take a lead. A Weakley kill cut the Fayetteville lead to 11-9, but that was as close as the home team could get as the Lady Rockets got the next four points and later stretched their lead to 20-12 on a Christina Murphy ace.
A kill by Hall kept West Union alive but the visitors picked up five of the final six points of the match, a Thompson kill putting the finishing touches on a 25-14 set and a 3-0 match victory.
The Lady Dragons only managed 12 kills in the match, led by four by Shelbi Weakley and three from Jocelyn Hall. West Union got nine assists from Annabelle McIntosh and 10 digs each from Kale Garrison and Maddie Stout.
Coach Rowe’s squad got back on the winning track the following night as they traveled to Eastern Brown and won a five-set thriller from the Lady Warriors, 19-25, 25-11, 14-25, 25-10, 15-7 to improve their overall season record to 8-9.
“We have been kind of in a ‘slump’ the last few games and we were finally able to pull out of it, said Coach Rowe. “The girls came ready and really wanted to win and it showed. We have done a lot of adjusting this season due to injuries and losing our setter (Ashlah Staten) due to a knee injury and that is a big hit on any team in the middle of a season. We talked about how we really needed to get this win going into our last week of regular play and heading into tournament.”
In this, the final week of the regular season, the Lady Dragons hosted Piketon in non-conference play on Monday night, then were back in the SHAC on Tuesday with a trip to Seaman to face the North Adams Lady Devils, who are unbeaten in conference play.
A busy week continues on Wednesday as Senior Night brings another non-conference foe to the Dragon Lair, the Portsmouth Clay Lady Panthers. A busy week, the regular season and the conference schedule for the Lady Dragons concludes on Thursday night as they travel to Peebles to face the Lady Indians.
