Brycelyn Deickert and Taylor Day of North Union leap to block a shot during a volleyball match against Galion on Thursday. The Lady Cats were able to winone set, but the Lady Tigers were able to outlast NU for a 3-1 match win.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
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Volleyball is a fast, reactionary sport where a set can be over in a matter of minutes or the two teams can exchange blows one after another. Ultimately there has to be a victor.
For the Lady Cats of North Union, a four-set match that ultimately ended with them losing to Galion 3-1 was one such game where each player had to be creative in order to keep the ball alive.
“I think we are improving each game, even though we may not be the ultimate winners, “said NU coach Peg Curts. “I think that our game overall is improving.
“Like I told you at the beginning of the season, we are really young as far as the team goes, so we are learning to work with one another.”
The Lady Cats took a 2-0 lead early in set one, but Galion was able to get the upper hand and take the lead with a 20-10 cushion.
Curts asked for a timeout to pull her squad to the side and shake them up. The efforts worked as the Lady Cats experienced their first scrapping volleys that ended when Lissie Michael stroked a shot down the right line past the Lady Tigers’ blockers.
The point switched the serve to North Union. Josie Duncan gave NU a four-point run to put the game at 22-16 before a bad serve gave the sphere back to the Tigers. The two sides traded blows before the Tigers won the set, 25-20.
“They were really scrappy and they will go for anything,” said Curts.
North Union continued its slow burn to the top, this time not letting the Lady Tigers build up a substantial lead. The two sides went back-and-forth until the 15-10 mark of the game. The Tigers started to string together points, notching two to every one NU could tally.
At 20-15, another long grinding battle ended in favor of the Tigers after the two sides exchanged the ball six different times.
The battle ultimately ended with Galion taking the second set 25-19.
The Tigers were one set away from victory, but Lady Cats had a different idea in mind.
NU began with service and Taylor Day put six points on the board before Galion could notch a point off a ball hit out-of-bounds by NU.
The Tigers decided to follow suit and pushed the score line to 6-5 before NU realized what was going on. The game switched to a blow-by-blow exchange of points with each team taking a slight one-point advantage followed by a tie.
“I told you last time that this conference is going to be really tough and everybody is stepping it up this year,” said Curts. “It is one of those situations on any given night the tables can turn. We will play them again and we can be the one that comes out as victors.”
The Lady Cats broke the tie with a long volley that ended when Michaels leaped from the right side of the court and crushed a cross-court hit that landed untouched. That gave NU a 21-20 lead.
The Lady Cats retained the small advantage until Galion tied the match at 23.
A bad serve returned the ball to NU. Darian Thompson placed the serve in the middle of the Galion side. After swapping volleys, the Lady Cats took their first set of the match, 25-23.
“I think we were getting beat on serve receive and once we got that under control we started to put our game together a little bit,” said Curts. “We are starting to rely on all of our hitters now, so this is the best game we can put together.”
Lady Cats carried their momentum into the fourth set and kept the score close with only thee points separating the two teams for the majority of the set.
The Tigers continued to push the score forward, as the Lady Cats had trouble keeping pace. The Lady Cats got hands on shots, but the ball bounced past them or out-of-bounds.
That gave The Lady Tigers their avenue to victory with a 25-18 win and 3-1 match triumph.
The loss dropped the Lady Cats to 2-5.
NU will host Clearfork in Mid Ohio Athletic Conference action on Saturday.