Lynchburg-Clay forces 5th game; defeats Whiteoak

DODSONVILLE — It took five tough sets of volleyball, but on Thursday night, it was the Lynchburg-Clay Lady Mustangs who walked away with a non-conference victory, defeating rival Whiteoak in a match that showed the continued improvement of the host LC squad thus far this season.

"We'll take it," Faust said. “Coming off the fair we were sluggish, and at the beginning of the year Whiteoak handled us in the Highland County tournament, so we were up for a steep challenge, and we rose the the occasion when we needed to.

"The biggest thing with the last couple games was we started out well, got down, but we battled back and I'm really pleased with our mental toughness in our fourth and fifth sets. We've done well and battled back in some tough situations."

LC (2-2, 4-5) won the first game 25-22, followed by the visiting Lady 'Cats taking game two at 25-13. In the third game, Whiteoak took a 2-1 game advantage by winning that third game, 25-19.

Then like they've done before this season, the Lady Mustangs rallied in the fourth and fifth games to win the match, battling Whiteoak (2-1, 4-4) for a 25-12 fourth game win. To cap off the victory, the fifth and final game saw LC win at 15-12.

"Like I told the girls in the locker room, we can't lose that first game," WHS head coach Katie Pollard said. "We've been using that game as a warm-up, and our goal for the rest of the season is, we are winning that first game.

"I wasn't angry for lack of effort, but we have to keep our head up. We have to support each other more at certain times, not get down, and we can't have games like we had at times (Thursday).

The fifth and match-deciding game began with the Lady Mustangs gaining the first two points, taking a 2-0 lead with an ace by Tylar Griffith. Whiteoak responded with a point by Morgan Knoblauch, and teammate Emma Wardlow tied the score at 2-2, the first of four tied scores in the fifth game.

The game continued to be tied at 2-2 and 3-3, but Shelby Marshall pushed the Lady Mustangs ahead with a hard spike to the WHS side of the court for the 4-3 advantage.

White tied the score at 4-4, then took their turn at leading the game with a point from Lexi Jones. The score was eventually tied at 5-5, the final time the score would be equal between the two teams in the match.

Lynchburg-Clay eventually built a lead of 8-6 with Hannah Morgan scoring the eighth points for LC at the net, while the sixth point of WHS was scored off a block at the net by Kayla Smallwood.

Both teams continued to go strong against each other, but for the remainder of the match, the hosts never relinquished their advantage against their Highland County rival.

With that said, keeping that advantage didn't come easy with the score being 8-7, 9-8 and 12-10 before LC built a three-point lead following WHS sending the ball out of play.

Wardlow made what may have been the most clutch play of the match as she kept WHS in the running for tying the score after making a huge save by keeping the ball in play, back to the side of LC as she chased the ball, hitting it behind her and over the net. That play forced LC to hit the ball a little too hard and out of play themselves, bringing WHS to within two points of tying the score.

WHS moved even closer with as the scoreboard read 13-12, but LC proved too much at the end with Griffith leaping and spiking the ball over the net for a kill and the 15th point of game five for the game and match win.

That was the part of the match most will remember, but getting to a fifth game was a grind for both as LC won the first game by just three points, and WHS controlled game two by 12 points to make the match even at 1-1.

From there, the match became a best-of-3 contest, with WHS taking the match lead following their 25-19 game three win. In that win, they had to battle past a 9-9 tied score, eventually taking a 17-13 lead with a kill from Knoblauch.

LC tried to fight back in the third game, but an ace from Hannah Maynard made it a 21-16 score in Whiteoak's advantage, and later WHS led 23-18 off a play at the net from MaKayla Risner. The final point of the match came off a spike from Knoblauch.

The Lady Mustangs controlled most aspects of the fourth game with Kylie Camp having a big block early in the game, and later Makayla Creed gave LC another point off a serve that bounced off the opponent.

As the game continued, LC led 15-7 with Brittany Ernst and Camp contributing points. Emily Roush also contributed to the scoring. The final points of the fourth game came with Shelby Marshall scoring at the net, a spike by Griffith and the Lady 'Cats hitting their own side of the net to end the game.

"Shelby finished with 12 kills, but all of our tall girls did a great job at the net," Faust said. "We did all we could to neutralize Emma Wardlow, but she still had a good game against us.

"We limited her attack ability, but Shelby Marshall, Emily Roush, Kylie Camp and Hannah Magie all did a really good job defensively."

Faust spoke about how his team has improved so much over not just the beginning of this season, but from last year as well.

"We have the skills and the athleticism, but it is a lot mental with us," he said. “Because we have all these girls back from last year, when things would go bad for us in the past, everything went bad.

"This year things have gone bad, but we've been able to correct them. In the past when we would go down two sets to one, the match was over. Now we are able to battle back, and that's what I'm most impressed with. It is the mental toughness and the growth in that area."

LC will play again on Friday night, hosting the North Adams Lady Green Devils, while Whiteoak will play in a tri-match on Saturday at Western Latham.