Andrews – It was a tough night for Andrews volleyball on Sept. 27, as the Lady Wildcats were swept by Hayesville (25-11, 25-20, 25-5).
Hayesville (10-6, 2-3 Big Smoky Mountain Conference) presented a tough matchup for Andrews (2-12, 0-5) because of their size, but the Lady Wildcats didn’t help themselves either in the first or third sets. Head coach Shanna Mustin has been working with her team on confidence all year, and didn’t see enough Tuesday.
“Once they start making a mistake, they can’t find their way out of a rotation, then they just get stuck,” Mustin said. “And so, of course, we practice a lot coming from behind, and what that looks like and if we get stuck these are our options against different defenses. But it just comes down to whether or not they put it together in game.”
Some of those rotation issues started in the first set. Andrews jumped out to a 5-3 lead to start the match, only for the Lady Jackets to go on a 10-0 run and never trail in the set again.
The second set went better, with Andrews having 16-14 and 17-16 leads before Hayesville went on a 5-0 run and didn’t trail again in the set. The Lady Wildcats got production from outside hitters Kylie Donaldson and Beth Shook, but didn’t have enough to put the Lady Jackets away.
After a good second set, Mustin thought her team had momentum going into the third set, though it went more like the first. Hayesville led jumped out to a 12-3 lead, and Andrews only scored two more points before the Lady Jackets finished off the sweep.
“When we play aggressive good things happen,’ Mustin said. “It just seemed like in set three we got stuck in our second rotation and couldn’t get out. In their mind, they just could not come back from that.”