Hillsboro earns 5-set victory over Chillicothe

The Hillsboro Lady Indians stayed undefeated following a win on Tuesday night, battling a tough Chillicothe Lady Cavaliers team to the brink in Frontier Athletic Conference competition, winning in five sets in front of their home crowd. 

The excitement was evident inside of Hillsboro High School, as the Lady Indians and Lady Cavaliers competed at a top level in their conference volleyball match, with HHS winning sets two, four and five, while CHS won sets one and three. 

Set one saw Chillicothe win by a 25-23 score, followed by the Lady Indians gaining the victory in set two at 25-20. The Lady Cavs gained the third set win at 25-18, and Hillsboro answered with the win in set four at 26-24. 

In the fifth set (first to 15 and win by at least two points), Hillsboro won with a 15-7 score, defeating the Lady Cavaliers for the first time in program history, according to the HHS Athletics Facebook page. 

“On Monday we practiced hard, we watched their film and watched how we needed to score on them, and the girls really took advantage of that tonight,” HHS head coach Heather Jones said. “They scored points where we knew they were at a disadvantage.

“I always tell the girls, they need to get as far ahead as they can, because typically the other team, they get down a little bit when the other team's ahead so much. I always tell them to be positive and keep going for it, because the more that you're ahead, the better advantage you definitely have.”

Set one was close throughout, and late in the set the score was tied at 19, 20 and 21, but CHS eventually pulled away at the end for the 25-23 win. 

Hillsboro responded with the set two win, but early on it was close with the score tied four times early on at 1-1, 2-2, 4-4 and 5-5. From there, the Lady Indians took a lead of 11-5, with the eighth and ninth points scored by Samantha Tipton at the net. 

HHS kept the lead, even after fending off strong serves by Evelyn Hamman, and the Lady Indians took a 15-9 advantage off a hit by Camryn Spruell. Later, an ace from Hillsboro’s Tylee Davis put Hillsboro ahead 22-28, and from there Ryan Wagoner had a play at the net for a 23-19 HHS lead. 

Hillsboro eventually won the second set at 25-20, tying the match score at 1-1. 

The third set was led early by Hillsboro, who built a 10-4 lead following some points scored by Tipton and Spruell, but the Lady Cavs had serves by Hamman and a play at the net from Grace Townsend that eventually tied the score at 10-10. CHS then took the lead at 12-10, forcing HHS to call a timeout. 

CHS led for the remainder of the third set, winning by seven points at 25-18. 

The Lady Indians weren’t finished, regrouping to win set four by a 26-24 score. The set was tied at 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 19-19, 23-23 and 24-24, with the Lady Cavs starting early with points scored by Hamman and Maleah Geise. Hillsboro battled back as Tipton had an ace, and Davis for HHS brought the Lady Indians to within three points of tying the score at 16-13. 

HHS eventually battled back, tying the score at 19, then again at 23. CHS briefly took back the lead, but HHS wasn’t done as they tied the score at 24, and scored two more consecutive points for the 26-24 win, tying the match score at 2-2. 

Then came set five, and the Lady Indians gained the momentum fast with a 3-0 lead after Chillicothe hit the ball out of play three straight times. The lead turned into a 6-1 advantage after a point from Kayla Seeling, and later a kill and play at the net from Tipton put HHS ahead by a 10-2 score. 

As the fifth set continued, CHS made it a 13-6 score with Hillsboro in the lead, but HHS won by eight points at 15-7. 

Tipton totaled 13 kills, two aces, six total blocks, five digs and one assist. Davis led HHS with 16 kills, plus she added one ace and 22 digs.

Seeling led the Lady Indians with 36 assists, while Hillsboro also had a team total of 86 digs. Jadi Howland had 14 digs, while Seeling had 12 digs (and she added two blocks), Addison Huff finished with 10 digs, Spruell totaled six digs and Allie Roush added two digs. 

For CHS, Hamman had 26 kills, nine aces, two blocks and 12 digs. Townsend led Chilliothe with 47 assists, and Miranda McCloy had 23 digs to lead the team. 

“What stuck out to me the most was the sportsmanship the girls had, and they never got down,” Jones said. “They continued to play hard. They never got down because they wanted to win … they are here to win.”

The following night, Hillsboro went on the road for a non-conference match and won in five sets against the Wilmington Lady Hurricane, winning set two 25-14, set four 26-24 and set five 15-13. 

HHS now stands at 6-0 overall, and they are 1-0 in the FAC.