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Eagles rolled up by Mounties in three sets
There are times that a team in any sport struggles, but not because of a lack of effort or talent.
It’s still frustrating regardless and the South Putnam Eagle volleyball team is going through that right now.
The Eagles hosted possible sectional opponent Southmont on Wednesday night. The Mounties swept the Eagles 25-21, 25-23, 25-16 to pick up the victory.
Both teams put together some significant runs, but until the third set, neither team was able to pull away for an extended period.
The Mounties were able to make enough plays to get the victory as the loss dropped the Eagles to 10-11 on the season, while Southmont improved to 10-11.
South Putnam is in a busy stretch of the season, having played Monday in WIC action against Sullivan, tonight and plays again Thursday against Cascade. South will work on finding out what the missing piece is as they have a week or so prior to the tournament starting.
“It’s like a piece of IKEA furniture. You put all the pieces together and say ‘this isn’t what I thought it was.’ It is not a lack of talent or leadership. We will continue to work through this,” South Putnam head coach Ellen Houser said.
The Mounties used an 8-0 run in the first set to take a commanding 11-4 lead, but the Eagles responded.
South began chipping away at the lead and cut the lead to 12-10 behind a Chlara Pistelli ace and a Layla Mullin directional kill.
The Mounties again put up a run as they went up 20-11 and seemed to be in control.
The Eagles responded again pulled within one point 22-21 before Southmont was able to recover and score the last three points of the set for the 25-21 win and a 1-0 lead.
“We made some small mistakes tonight, but not bad. I would like them to talk a little more on the court and sometimes we might trust each other too much,” Houser said.
The Eagles responded early in the second set with a better start and were able to get out to a 10-6 lead early in the match with Mullin and Elliana Cox getting kills.
The Mounties responded and took a 16-14 lead before Mullin killed the run with a kill before a second tied the score at 18-18.
The Eagles took a 22-19 lead, but Southmont responded and scored six of the last seven points in the set to pick up the victory 25-23 and a take a 2-0 lead in the match.
“Layla had a really good game for us. She gave us some great moments and had some good kills for us tonight. She played smart,” Houser said.
The Mounties jumped up early in the third set. The Eagles trailed 8-3 before hitting a quick 5-0 run as Lilly Emmerich had block and two kills that helped tie the score at 8-8.
The Mounties took control with some Eagle errors and extended the lead to 21-13 and before cruising to a 25-16 win and the sweep.
“We played pretty well in the first two sets, but we kind of gave away that third set and let them get control. Lilly was very good with blocks tonight. We will look at film and work on what we need to do,” Houser said.
The Eagles have their final game of the week against Cascade this week and will watch the Sectional draw on Sunday before their final week of the regular season.