The Washington Lady Blue Lions hosted the Miami Trace Lady Panthers for the first of their annual two meetings Tuesday, the first time as members of the new Frontier Athletic Conference.
Miami Trace won the match in four sets: 25-22, 26-28, 25-17 and 25-12.
“I was really happy with our three seniors tonight,” Miami Trace head coach Doug Mace said. “They stepped up, big time.
“Dyamin (Baker) and Tabby (Landrum) did probably their best job so far this season in the back row chasing balls down,” Mace said. “They were really relentless and kept touching the ball and giving us a chance.
“I can’t say enough about Erica (Marshall) hitting,” Mace said. “With the injuries we’ve had, it kind of puts more weight on Erica’s shoulders and she really stepped up tonight and led us with 15 kills and four ace serves.
“Our three seniors really pulled together and led this team tonight and I’m really proud of them,” Mace said. “We had our ups and downs. Tonight, we just played a lot of balls up. Even when Washington had some really nice hits, we were fortunate enough to keep some of them from hitting the floor.
“Court House is a very good team,” Mace said. “They made runs and we made runs. I was proud of the way we kept our composure. They had a big lead early in that first game and we fought back and pulled that out.
“We’ve got some young kids out there,” Mace said. “A couple of freshmen, a few sophomores and a couple juniors. We’re kind of all over, age-wise. For some of the kids, it was kind of a toughening up, growing up environment. For the older kids, they kind of kept everything calm.”
“I think they were going up and attacking the ball,” Washington head coach Ashley DeAtley said of Miami Trace. “They did a good job of being aggressive at the net. We just were trying and nothing was falling for us. We were a little timid and playing it safe and I think that’s what hurt us.
“They were taking some of our hitters out of the game with a triple block,” DeAtley said. “They put the pressure on us to make good decisions. We kind of lost our focus on that.”
Statistically for Washington, serving, Halli Wall was 16 of 16; Faith Kobel was 13 of 17 with two aces; Hannah Haithcock was 12 of 13.
Setting: Wall, 81 of 82 with 23 assists; Trinity Ragland, 4 of 4 and Rayana Burns, 2 of 2 with one assist.
Kills: Kobel, 11 out of 28 attempts; Haithcock, 7 out of 17; Delaney Greer, 7 out of 18.
Blocks: Kobel, 2 solo; Haithcock, 1 solo.
Digs: Greer, 12; Wall, 8; Haithcock, 8; Tabby Woods, 8.
In the j-v match, Washington defeated Miami Trace, 25-20 and 25-8.
Statistically for Washington, serving, Emma Funari was 16 of 16 with three aces; Brittney Wilson was 3 of 4 with two aces; Ashlynn Thevenot was 5 of 5.
In attacks, Rachel Palmer was 5 of 7 with three kills; Wilson was 10 of 13 with seven kills; Mallory Hicks was 2 of 4 with two kills.
Passing: Emily Semler was 15 of 19; Mackenzie Truex was 12 of 15 and Hicks was 6 of 8.
Setting: Funari, 22 of 22 with 13 assists.
Washington will now play at Miami Trace on Thursday, Oct. 5.
Next up for the Lady Panthers is a match at Hillsboro Thursday at 5 p.m.
Washington (now 4-7 overall, 2-3 in the FAC) will play at Chillicothe Thursday at 5 p.m. in the FAC.
