Lady Hawks fail to adjust to Cardinals tip balls in five game loss
By Dave Mast
September 20, 2012
445
In volleyball, there is an old adage coaches like to use in that pivotal fifth game to 15 points that goes, First to five, first to 10.
On Tuesday, Sept. 18 at Hiland High School, whether you believe in that kind of thing or not, you had to at least give it a little bit of credence.
The Sandy Valley Cardinals and Lady Hawks went to game five, and with the score tied at four, Sandy Valley scored the next point to reach five first. Then, with the game knotted up at nines, the Cardinals again scored the point to gain access to the magical 10 realm, and eventually went on to win the game 15-12.
This one is pretty tough to take because of all the little things we didnt do right, said Hiland coach Becky Williams. The little mistakes absolutely killed us tonight.
Williams lamented about the serving, the Lady Hawks with a large number of poor serves. But what she was really upset with was the lack of adjustment by her squad in picking up the tips at the net by Sandy Valley. Countless times the ball fell to the floor untouched on dinks across the net as Hiland blockers went up and nobody covered the center of the court.
We just failed to pick up their tip, said Williams. They started tipping early and kept on tipping, and we never adjusted. After three games of that, we should not be letting that happen time and time again, but we were, and it killed us. We were not adjusting well at all.
The opportunities to finish this one off and file it in the win column were there all night for Hiland. A spirited opening game that went back and forth finally went to Hiland. The Lady Hawks led 18-15, but then fell behind 21-20, only to rally ahead and fall behind again 24-23. But Dana Rausch scored on a dink off a fake set, to tie it, then each team scored once, and when Sierra Miller connected on a slam and Rausch dinked over another set, Hiland captured game one 27-25.
Game two was not an attractive one for Hiland, which fell behind early and never recovered, losing 16-25, but game three went the way of the initial game, and the two teams again battled back and forth, each putting pressure on the other to stay close. Eventually Hiland earned yet another 27-25 victory and was poised to put the Cardinals away.
However, Hiland fell behind early again, and spent the majority of game four trying to dig out of the hole they had built. Trailing 13-9, they began clawing away, and actually tied things up at 22. But a pair of tips fell harmlessly to the ground in between their defense, and that led to a 25-23 loss, and a trip to that fateful game five.
There, the Lady Hawks started great, leading 2-0 when Natasha Yoder made a great diving save and Charity Mishler recorded two kills.
But then it became 4-4, and Sandy Valley used the tip to gain a 5-4 edge. Hiland roared right back, taking a 7-6 lead on a Rausch kill, and the two teams battled to 9-9 before a marathon point that seemed to take forever went to Sandy Valley to make it 10-9 Cardinals.
Hiland got back to even at 12-all, before Sandy Valley rattled off three straight to end the evening on a sour note for the Lady Hawks (2-9).
This is disappointing tonight because we are losing a game that we know we should be winning, said Williams. That is why it is so tough to take. We had solid stats, but I told the kids the errors and inability to adjust tonight is why we lost. We beat ourselves.
Sometimes a team can play well against a good opponent and lose. That is acceptable. Other times, they play poorly against a team they feel they should beat, and that is not acceptable for Williams.
This night was definitely the latter, and now the Lady Hawks will have to try to climb out of the doldrums against league champion Tuscarawas Central Catholic.
We know we have our energy, and we try to keep focusing on that, said Yoder, who led Hiland with 20 digs. We just have to keep working to get better and play smarter volleyball.
