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Lady Tigers fall to Smith-Cotton in home volleyball opener
Nevada Daily Mail
Nevada Lady Tigers volleyball lost its home-opener to Sedalia Smith-Cotton in two sets Tuesday night, 25-15 and 25-19.
"We played awesome Thursday night against Harrisonville and just didn't have that competitiveness tonight," Nevada head coach Ashley Thoreson said. "We just looked flat."
Early in the first set the Lady Tigers (1-1) knotted the match at 2-2 courtesy of a Megan Hold block at the net.
With senior libero Lexie Overton serving, Nevada extended its lead to 5-2. However, Smith-Cotton reeled off three quick points to tie the match 5-5.
Later in the match, a Margaret Cavener ace handed the Lady Tigers a 12-10 advantage, capping a 5-0 run.
A Smith-Cotton service-error gave Nevada its final lead of the match at 14-13, as Sedalia caught fire going on a 12-1 run.
"We didn't have a very good practice yesterday and it definitely showed tonight," Thoreson said.
After a rough start to the second set, the Lady Tigers found themselves in a 5-0 hole, which later grew to 12-3.
"They just didn't have that fire tonight," Thoreson said. "We have the potential, and I'm disappointed we didn't show that tonight."
Nevada later fell behind 21-9. Down 24-14, the Lady Tigers made a late charge with a 5-0 run to slice the Smith-Cotton lead to 24-19. The final point of the night came on a tap by Montana Hedrick.
"Megan Hold was our big hitter Thursday with 13 kills, and tonight she struggled a lot," Thoreson said. "I think Sedalia knew (to key) on her serve-receive. So her serve-receive struggled, and then she kind of brought that up to the net when she went to attack."
Thoreson said her team's defense needs improvement.
"They had us running in circles," Thoreson said of the Smith-Cotton offense. "They were a very smart and scrappy team and we did not handle that well."
Nevada has a fresh look to its roster, as they lost top players Rilie Good and Morgan McNeley to graduation. Good provided the team a tremendous amount of power at the net.
"I knew we would have to have some younger girls step up offensively," Thoreson said.
For Nevada, Hold and Kaitlynn Johnmeyer recorded four kills apiece while Cavener finished the night with two. Overton led in digs with eight while Ellie Smith dished out eight assists.
---- Junior varsity thriller ----
Prior to the varsity match the NHS junior varsity team hit the court, picking up their first victory of the season in wild matchup against the Smith-Cotton JV team.
The contest went the distance, as the Lady Tigers dropped the first set 25-23 before taking the final two sets 25-21 and 25-22. With the win. Nevada improved to 1-1.
Led by sophomore middle blocker Alaina Morgan, the junior varsity squad gave the Wynn Gymnasium crowd its money's worth with passionate and exciting play.
The team is comprised of five freshmen and two sophomores.
"We only have a few sophomores on the JV team, so it's good to see that group start playing well together," Thoreson said.
Thoreson said she was impressed with how Morgan took over as the vocal leader, leading the team to the comeback victory.
"She has a lot of energy, a lot of excitement, and a lot of passion for the game," Thoreson said. "She really gets excited. She did a good job of leading the junior varsity team and that's an exciting win to have."
The NHS C-team (0-2) was edged by Smith-Cotton 25-23 and 25-23.
---- Next up ----
Nevada hits the road for a matchup with Warrensburg, Thurs