Hayesville – It was the fourth set of Andrews’ volleyball’s match against Hayesville, and the Lady Jackets’ Hallie Johnson was having her way.
Against a smaller team in the Lady Wildcats, the 6-foot-tall middle hitter was a force all night, sending kill after kill onto the Andrews side and stuffing attacks at the net. For most of the night on blocks, she would block the ball and just go back to the Hayesville huddle.
On this one, she let out a yell, letting the Andrews side know physically and verbally what stood in their way.The Lady Jackets’ height allowed them to take control of the match and best the Lady Wildcats in four sets 25-19, 22-25, 25-15, 25-11.
“It makes a difference because if we don’t have the height to contest those hard hitters, it makes our defense have to work a whole lot harder,” Andrews head coach Shanna Mustin said. “Hayesville was finding holes in our defense tonight, and a big part of that was because of our small block.”
Mustin said the team came in knowing Hayesville (1-2 overall, 1-0 Big Smoky Mountain Conference) was a tough gym to play in, as it’s different than some of the other gyms in the conference. Instead of the fans being on the same level of the players, the floor-level seats were rolled up and fans were seated above the players. That makes it quiet on the floor, which means players have to bring their own intensity and make sure they’re communicating.
The Lady Wildcats (1-1, 0-1) were the better team early in the first set, taking advantage of two kills by Brooke Phillips and some Lady Jackets errors to lead 13-6. But once Hayesville cleaned up their play, Andrews didn’t have much of an answer as the Lady Jackets stormed back to win the first set, 25-19.
“Once we let Hayesville run the tempo of the game, it affected our confidence,” Mustin said.
Andrews was able to stave off an early 8-3 deficit and eventually win the second set, 25-22. In that set Mustin saw a more confident and aggressive team, which is what she wants to see from her team going forward. Senior Mackenzie Stalcup was big down the stretch with four timely kills, and was one of the few times in the matches the Lady Wildcats had a dependable hitter.
However, Andrews couldn’t find a go-to hitter in the third and fourth sets, which Hayesville was able to dominate. The Lady Jackets led 13-10 in the third set before going on a 12-5 run to finish the third set and take a 2-1 lead in the match.
Then in the fourth set, a net violation by Kaylin Ellis gave Hayesville a 4-2 lead, which was the closest Andrews would get the rest of the way.
“We were making decent passes and we were making decent sets,” Mustin said. “but when it came down to execute the hits, we had a lot of mistakes and I feel like that hurt the overall confidence. The team morale just kind of hurt from that.”
Andrews traveled to Swain on Thursday and came away with a hard-fought 3-1 win (17-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-15). The Lady Wildcats hosted Cherokee on Tuesday, which ended after the Cherokee Scout went to press.