McClain volleyball sweeps Washington in 3 sets

The McClain volleyball team improved their overall record to 4-2 on the season after defeating conference foe Washington in straight sets Tuesday night in the McClain gymnasium.

It didn’t look good for the Lady Tigers early when they fell behind 10-6 early in game one. But the pesky McClain girls regrouped at the middle of the set to tie the score at 12-12, then fell behind again 19-12 before pulling out the win 27-25 in a game they trailed the entire time until the end.

“I’m really proud of the way my girls battled back in the first set,” McClain head coach Taylor Alsop said. “They could have easily given up but did a great job of pulling out the win.”

Serving leaders in the opening set were Brenna Wright, Katie Cook and Sarah Easter.

McClain made sure game two would not be like the first one and led from start to finish, winning easily 25-13 to take a 2-0 advantage in the match.

The third and final game of the night was another hotly contested set with Washington again leading most of the way, but again McClain regained the momentum late and pulled out another exciting and hard-earned win 25-22.

The serving leaders for McClain in game two and three were Wright, Kylea Toney, Sarah Easter and Madalyn Giffin.

The Lady Tigers were strong at the net too with Wright, Anna Eikenberry, Toney and Lydia Beatty dominating most of the match in the front row.

“I thought Brenna (Wright) served very well tonight, and she’s worked hard on that,” said Alsop. “Tonight her serves were just skimming over the net, which was really nice to see. Anna Eikenberry and Kylea Toney also had solid all-around games, but I thought everyone played well overall.

“We lost three pretty good seniors to graduation so we’re still trying to work some things out. We’ve got some setters now who are learning new positions and they just now seem to be getting used to each other.

“I think everyone on this team has moved to a new position except Brenna, Anna and Katie Cook but having six seniors with lots of varsity experience and leadership has really been helpful,” Alsop continued.

The Lady Tigers travel to Jackson Thursday, Aug. 29 for another FAC contest.

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