A month ago, the Dixie County volleyball team swept Eastside in Cross City.
On Tuesday night at Eastside, the Bears completed a 2-game sweep of the Rams with a 25-20, 25-15, 25-22 win at Herman “Pop” Williams Gymnasium.
“I’m very happy for the win, but very disappointed in the way we executed,” said Dixie County coach James Bendel. “I believe we missed over 15 serves tonight, probably 10 of them being first-ball serves. We played slow and complacent tonight. Our team’s capable of a lot more, and as we move forward, we’re going to have to play the way we did early in the season.”
Eastside had an early 5-3 lead in the first set on a kill by sophomore Taylor Flowers, but the Bears went on a 3-0 run to take a 6-5 lead and a 5-0 run after Eastside cut it to 8-7.
“It was disappointing,” said Eastside coach Rachel Williams. “We lost five seniors, and one of them was a setter. We also lost another setter last year, so it’s been kind of a rebuilding year…we have tons of potential. We have lots of good hitters, lots of good athletes, but we’ve been really struggling putting it together.”
The 5-0 run concluded with an ace by 5’1 senior Riley Whitaker (2 kills, 3 aces, 11 assists) for a 13-7 advantage.
“Riley’s like a tiny spark plug,” Bendel said. “She’ll run through the wall for you. I like to call her Tigger, because she bounces. She is a sprung piece of metal, hard as nails…I can generally depend on her to serve about 95%.”
Her four service points created enough separation and the Bears (7-5) never trailed again in the opening set.
The Rams (2-15) committed seven service errors, including the final point in the first set.
“I know that a few people lost their serves, and that hurt us, but mainly we’ve just been struggling with serve and receive, getting good passes to the setter,” Williams said. “I wish we could show off our great hitters, but we seem to have trouble.”
Dixie County struck early and often in the second set, taking an 8-1 lead on a 7-0 run.
Senior Mia Stalvey (4 kills, 6 aces, 15 digs), a transfer from Newberry, had three aces and five service points during the run.
“Mia’s a hard worker,” said Bendel, who noted that his team was without a pair of injured starters in middle blocker Jeriah Curtis and outside hitter Averleigh McFarlan. “She plays six rotations for us, really good kid, super fast. We didn’t get any good back row attacks for tonight, which we like to run that as a play for her because she usually makes really good kills on that. We didn’t make good sets for her to make good swings.”
In addition to the early run, the Bears had a 6-0 run and a 5-0 run to cruise to a 25-15 win in the second set.
But the third set was back-and-forth and featured 10 ties, including an ace by Flowers to tie it at 14-14.
“She’s a great player,” Williams said. “She serves the team in lots of different ways. She usually plays middle but sometimes can play outside. She’s got a great back row. That’s one thing that this year I have the blessing of several players like Taylor that can play in several different positions, but the challenge of figuring out who should be where together on the court, that’s been the biggest challenge for me.”
Dixie County sophomore Macy Eplee (team-leading 8 kills) quickly tied it at 15-15, but Eastside junior Kaylee Ovia, the Rams’ tallest player, had a block to tie it at 16-16.
“She can hit well, when she gets a good set and when she’s ready to hit,” Williams said. “I feel like our setters struggle getting the ball to the right spot, and our hitters won’t hit unless they’re in that ‘right spot.’ We’ve got several like Ciara (Brooks), Taylor (Flowers), and Neeah (Mewborn) that are playmakers no matter what ball gets up there, and I appreciate that…we’ve just been struggling with consistency.”
The Rams were within one late at 23-22 on an attack error, but the Bears scored the next two with a decisive ace by junior Kamille Barnes (7 kills) to win it 25-22.
“We brought up three JV players tonight, so I’m happy for the win,” Bendel said. “I’m happy with the way they executed. As far as that’s concerned, the JV players did a good job. A win is a win. An ugly win is an ugly win.”
Senior Jaicee Brown had 27 digs to lead Dixie County, which will host Bell at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Mewborn, a sophomore, had five digs, while junior Anijah Goss had five kills and Flowers had four for Eastside, which will host Trenton at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
