Hillsboro volleyball gains victory over McClain
HILLSBORO — The first meeting between the two Highland County rivals in conference play went to the Hillsboro Lady Indians on Tuesday evening, as they defeated their county rival, the McClain Lady Tigers, in three straight sets at Hillsboro High School.
Earlier this season, Hillsboro won a best-of-three match against McClain in a non-conference contest in the finals of the season-opening Spike and Dig Tournament, also at HHS. This season, the Lady Indians are 6-1 at home.
Tuesday’s match on Sept. 16 saw Hillsboro win 25-18 in set one, followed by a set two win of 25-12, and the third set was a Hillsboro winner at 25-21.
Hillsboro head coach Heather Jones discussed the win and gaining an FAC victory at home against a county rival, plus bouncing back after losing twice on Saturday against Western Brown and Zane Trace at WBHS in a tri-match.
“It was a very good game, and this week we have four games including tonight, so it was nice to come in after a weekend of a loss to start out so that way the girls are excited for the rest of the week,” Jones said. “It is nice to come out, and especially for a FAC match, and get the win.”
Jones talked about the strong second set of Hillsboro, comparing that set win to the other two sets.
“In the second set, the girls played really aggressive. The first set always takes them a little bit to get started, and the third set they kind of play down a little bit,” she said. “The second set, they all played as a team, they talked and were aggressive the whole set.”
McClain head coach Cierra Bolender spoke about the match against Hillsboro.
‘I keep telling them, historically, if we drop the first set, it is a little bit harder to get back into the groove in the second set, and that is kind of what happened,” Bolender said. “I wasn’t mad about how we played individually, but I just told them in the locker room that we weren’t clicking together at the right times at the same times.
“If we can start clocking all in the same time frame that would help us out a little bit, but the second and third sets we went on 6-0 runs and that’s just what really hurts us because we care constantly fighting back to get the score back up.”
MHS played a competitive third set where they were down by seven or more points, including at 17-10, but managed to make a comeback of sorts and kept the third set close.
“It always feels so good, but feels so bad when we make a comeback when trailing.” Bolender said. “You just wish the girls could do that a little faster (in making the comeback). For them individually and for us as a team, it is worth it for them to see it is worth it to fight back. Again, like I said, I’m not really mad about how we played tonight. We played pretty well, and I like our fight, and it will click for us eventually.”
Going back to the Lady Indians, Coach Jones gave more thoughts on players and their performances.
“Ryan Wagoner had a really good night,” Jones said. “She had around 15 or 16 kills and maybe more, and she had an outstanding night. Our outside hitters being Ryan and Tylee usually average around 18 kills a game, so they both played well.”
McClain with the loss falls to 4-11 overall and 1-4 in the Frontier Athletic Conference. McClain plays again on Thursday, Sept. 18 on the road at Chillicothe against the Lady Cavaliers in a FAC match.
Hillsboro snaps a three-match losing streak with the win, improving to 9-5 overall and 2-3 in the FAC. Hillsboro was scheduled to face the Wilmington Lady Hurricane on Wednesday night (Sept. 17) at HHS in non-conference play, and on Thursday (Sept. 18) the Lady Indians are scheduled to host the Miami Trace Lady Panthers in FAC competition.