Andrews – As Hiwassee Dam volleyball trotted out onto the court for the fourth set of its match at the Wildcats while leading 2-1, head coach Monica Wayman told her team to win this set and they could go home.
It wasn’t as easy as the wins they had in the previous two sets, but the Lady Eagles dug deep, closing the fourth set on a 7-2 run to win the match, then had a quick jubilant celebration in the locker room before trying to hustle to Sweet Tooth before it closed. Hiwassee Dam had its first win of the season, besting Andrews in four sets (21-25, 25-16, 25-8, 25-22) on Aug. 22.
“You work on things and try to build that culture,” Wayman said. “And when you have buy in and they find success, that just adds to the buy in to start building your program back.”
The match represented another step forward this year for Hiwassee Dam, which was swept by Robbinsville and Fannin County, Ga., in its first two matches before winning its first set of the year in a 3-1 loss at Swain County.
Though Wayman has never coached volleyball before, she has former Lady Eagles coach Angie Davis on the bench as an assistant. Davis can help with the X’s and O’s, while Wayman focuses more on the mentality and the effort she wants to see her team play with. That came through in the first set, when Wayman called a timeout with her team trailing 14-10.
“I told them that they were not moving their feet they had no enthusiasm and passion out there playing,” Wayman said.
“And that’s not Lady Eagles (volleyball), and that’s not the expectation.”
The energy for Hiwassee Dam was different for the rest of the set, though the Lady Eagles’ struggles in serve-receive meant Andrews took the first set, and the lead, in the match.
In the second set, Hiwassee Dam started using its height as an advantage, tweaking rotations to make sure taller players like Brinkley Payne and Katie and Olivia McNabb were in the front row at the right time. That turned the match in favor of the Lady Eagles, as Andrews didn’t have the blocking or defense to effectively counter Hiwassee Dam’s hitters.
The Lady Eagles also got off to faster starts in the second and third sets because of their runs at the service line. Payne had two aces early in the second set to help build a 6-0 lead, then she and Madison Shorette did the same in the third set to help build a 14-1 advantage.
“Serve-receive was our downfall today,” Lady Wildcats head coach Shanna Mustin said.
“We could not get out of certain serve-receives, which we knew that going in, we knew they had tough servers because we saw them in a scrimmage. So the game plan going was to be a tough serve-receive, and we didn’t meet that goal.”
The fourth set was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team leading by three or more points the entire way. But Hiwassee Dam was able to finish off the set and win the match, thanks to some late kills by Olivia McNabb and more strong play at the service line.
“We’re going to clean up the mistakes we made.” Wayman said. “But are going to be positive and enthusiastic about the success we found here tonight.”
For Andrews, Mustin said this will be “a clean slate” for her team, like she tries to for every loss, but especially with a young team still learning to compete at the varsity level.
Going forward she wants to see some of her younger players step up, and not just rely on one hitter to keep the team going.
More importantly, she said the loss showed how much effort it requires not just to be successful in games, but that success starts at practice.
“A big thing for our team right now is commitment,” Mustin said. “We’ve had a lot of missed practices, and I think that’s really showing for us.”