A long streak of wins finally came to an end for East Webster last week on the volleyball court.
A Class 6A team was on campus, and the East Webster Lady Wolverines had a chance to get another big win on the schedule on Tuesday but couldn’t capitalize.
After a dominating first set to start the match, the Lady Wolverines let Grenada have some life. The Lady Chargers responded with three-straight wins to take home the victory and leave coach Dallas McCracken frustrated postgame.
It was the first loss in a match for the Lady Wolverines in 10 matches, and they had won 24 of 25 sets along the way.
“I’m just disappointed in the fight. After that first set, it became Grenada’s home court,” McCracken said. “They got up, and they had a mission to beat us. I thought we owned the net in the first set, but in the second, third and fourth, their back row got it done. It is what it is.”
What made the loss so frustrating for McCracken was how the team started. EWHS came out in the opening set and attacked, taking advantage of any Grenada mistakes. After getting out to a 10-4 lead and prompting a timeout from the Lady Chargers, they would pounce.
Da’nasia Logan spearheaded a run of 11-straight points for the Lady Wolverines serving and pushed it out to 21-5. That was all they needed to get a dominant 25-8 victory in the opening frame.
Things started to go down hill for the Lady Wolverines in set two. Grenada got an early lead and would fend off a run by the Lady Wolverines as Isabel Baxter had a similar string of points as Logan serving. The Lady Chargers retook the lead and didn’t look back in a 25-16 win.
A big opportunity to get back in it and seize the momentum came in set three. The set went back and forth, and the Lady Wolverines were tied at 24 when a kill was negated on a net call. Grenada would get the next point and win 26-24. The Lady Chargers won the final set 25-20 after EWHS got behind and couldn’t quite get over the hump.
“I don’t know if it’s because we haven’t been down or what. I was thinking that we would make a fight for it, and we never did. I was waiting for us to get going, and we could never get back,” McCracken said. “Give credit to Grenada – they played a great defensive game.”
“I’m hoping that we can turn it around and build off this and learn that if you lose a set, you’ve got to get back and pound. When you get down, adversity shows you what you’re made of. We didn’t play our ball like we needed to. If we don’t step it up, we’re going to be done.”
The Lady Wolverines did get back to their winning ways at Winona on Thursday night. McCracken’s bunch had its 10th straight-sets win of the year with a 3-0 victory over the Tigers. There were two relatively close games in the first two sets with two 25-20 wins, but the Lady Wolverines would roll in the third set 25-7 to take the match.
The victory moved EWHS to 11-4 and now district play begins. The next few weeks will be huge for the Lady Wolverines as they try to position themselves for postseason. Nanih Waiya came up first at home on Tuesday night and Thursday is a big Webster County showdown against Eupora at Cumberland.
