Clovers fall to Chargers

CLOVERDALE — The Clovers hosted North Montgomery in a non-conference high school volleyball match on Monday night. The Clovers dug themselves a hole early in the first set and just could not quite get enough to pick up a victory in the second and third sets against the Chargers.

Cloverdale fell 25-14, 25-23, 25-20 in the match.

The Clovers were able to compete and get good performances from a variety of areas but could not put it together consistently enough to get a victory. Cloverdale fell to 1-16 on the season, while North Montgomery sits at 8-12 for year.

“We were gritty tonight, but we cannot keep getting ourselves in a hole. I wish we could put together a game where we had everyone on at the same time,” Cloverdale head coach Paige Glassburn said.

The Chargers took control early in the first set. They started out with a 4-0 lead and expanded it to 9-2 before Gracie Lee put together a mini run on her own to get the Clovers back within striking distance. The sophomore had a kill and two aces to cut the lead to 9-5 and the Clovers would stay within striking distance until the Chargers went on a 7-1 run later to boost the lead to 21-10 and then cruise to the 25-14 victory.

“Gracie played very well for us, she did a lot of good things,” Glassburn said.

The Clovers allowed the Chargers to get a lead again in the second set. North Montgomery stretched the lead to 13-8, but Cloverdale would not go away. A kill and an ace by Callee Smith sparked a run that saw the Clovers end up tying the score at 19-19 on an Adelaide Meyerrose ace. The Clovers then took advantage of some Charger errors and led 22-20, but North Montgomery scored five of the next six points to win the set at 25-23.

“Callee was on tonight and we recognized it, but we just couldn’t get it to her enough,” Glassburn said.

Both teams played evenly in the early stages of the third set. Jacie Neese was catalyst for the Clovers as she had a pair of finesse dinks at the net coupled with a back row kill and big save to have the score 8-6 in favor of the Chargers.

North Montgomery outscored the Clovers 8-2 over the next few minutes behind Caelyn Carpenter and Hope Delp attacking from the Charger left side of the net and take control at 16-8. That run spelled doom for the Clovers as they would cut the deficit to three points a couple of times, but Carpenter and Delp finished the Clovers off with a kill and an ace to pick up the sweep with a 25-20 third set victory.

“Yea, Jacie picked it up tonight. She was strong and really had that great save on a ball in the corner,” Glassburn said.

The Clovers will play Brown County Tuesday looking for their second win of the season and a conference victory. They defeated the Eagles earlier in the year in a tournament for their only win thus far.

“We are looking forward to Brown County tomorrow and just need more players to be on their game at the same time,” Glassburn said.