HVA takes down Lady Ads in district tilt
It was a hard-fought district-opening battle between volleyball rivals Farragut and Hardin Valley last Thursday night, Sept. 3, at HVA.
In the end, the Lady Hawks came away with a 3-0 win. The set scores were 25-11, 25-22, and 25-18. HVA improved its season record to 11-2, (1-0 District 4, Region 2)
Hardin Valley coach Eric Boden was happy with his girls’ overall play.
“I was really pleased with our defense and blocking,” he said. “We talked a lot about the game plan in our Wednesday practice and talked about what we wanted to do as a team. I thought our team went out and executed really well. We dug a lot of balls, stayed in system and served tough. We really wanted to get Farragut out of rhythm and put pressure on their passers.”
“The first set was pretty bad but the last two were close,” said FHS coach Whitney Lee. “I was pleased that we made adjustments through the match, but none of us were pleased with the end result.”
“I always want our offense to be better and more efficient,” said Boden. “I thought (senior setter) Caroline Clauss did a great job of running the offense and spreading the offense around. Our hitters took smart swings throughout the match. There were a few of our out-of- system balls I wanted back, but our hitters are progressing match by match and continue to gain confidence.”
“It was a good shakeup for us and we’re continuing to learn more and more about each other and our team as a whole,” said Lee.
The Lady Admirals fell to 5-7 overall, 0-1 in their district.
“(Junior libero) Lilly Ringle had a great match,” Boden said. “She led the team with 24 digs. She also added six assists and two aces. Lilly also passed well. She kept us in rhythm a lot in serve-receive.”
According to Boden, Ringle’s digs total for the season is now 171.
“(Junior) Maddie Jerrell leads our team with 118 Kills as a middle blocker, and Clauss leads the team in assists with 262,” Boden said. “A stat we are incredibly proud of is our team aces. We have 127 as a team. We worked a lot in the summer on serving tougher and talked a lot as a team about wanting to score more points off our serves.”
The Lady Hawks’ only losses are to Musselman from West Virginia and Siegel, which was a sub-state team last year.
