Lake Orion rallies to shock Clarkston
CLARKSTON » If the Lake Orion-Clarkston rivalry has proven anything through the years, it’s that it’s never over until it’s over.
Up two sets in Tuesday’s OAA Red rivalry volleyball match, Clarkston may have taken its foot off the gas and that left the opening for the Dragons to find their groove and take the final three sets to pick up an 18-25, 23-25, 30-28, 25-12, 15-12 victory.
“The message is that we can’t be satisfied winning two sets. It’s not enough. You have to maintain your focus and continue to do your job. You can’t go away from the things that have created that success for you,” Clarkston coach Ali Smith said of the stunning loss.
The tide started to turn in the match toward the end of the second set. Clarkston led 24-18, which forced a timeout from Lake Orion coach Tony Scavarda.
Out of the break, the Dragons (17-8, 3-0 OAA Red) would score five straight points to put the second set in doubt before the Wolves (14-8-1, 4-1) finished things up on a kill from sophomore Cayla Cogan.
“Before the last time out in the second I told the girls that maybe it was too late to change the second set, but we could at least start to put some doubt in their heads and make it close,” Scavarda said. “That got us some momentum and got us believing that we could play with them.”
The momentum led to an 8-0 start for the Dragons in the third set off the serve of senior Jaina Macaulay, who had two aces in the rally.
Lake Orion led most of the third before Clarkston made a rally to tie the set up at 24-24.
The Dragons would fail to finish off the set on three different occasions, while Clarkston had a chance to finish off the match up 26-25. Ultimately, Lake Orion forced the fourth when junior Nina Horning put together backto-back kills to give the Dragons
the 30-28 win.
“We really wanted this win against Clarkston and we came out really sluggish,” Horning said. “We slowly started to pick our energy up and once we found it, we were able to get the momentum going.”
The fourth set was all Dragons as their defense was able to lock in and get the ball to their setters effectively.
As Lake Orion heated up, Clarkston lost the strong serving and passing that it had in the opening sets to establish the two-set lead.
“We completely abandoned our serve and pass game,” Smith said.
“We had quite a few aces in the first two sets and had just three in the last three sets. We were passing very clean in the first two sets and we went away from a lot of those things that were allowing us to be successful.”
In the fifth set, Lake Orion turned to Horning to close the door. She came through with eight kills in the fifth to keep the Dragons in the lead throughout the final frame.
“She caught fire,” Scavarda said of Horning. “Credit to Jaina for continuing to go to her and recognizing that she was on a roll. When you have a hitter like Nina, and she catches fire like that, you can’t shy away from her.”
With the score at 13-12, Lake Orion finished out the match with kills from Lauren Peters and Hannah Lynch to give them the victory and keep them atop the OAA Red.
“Hopefully this gives us some belief, belief that we can beat good teams,” Scavarda said. “We have lost a lot of close matches this year. We have started to win some close matches recently, so hopefully things are changing for us.”
Clarkston had a standout performance from Cogan, who was consistently finishing points throughout the match. McKenna Hempton also was a strong point from the service line, even recording three consecutive aces at one point. The Wolves will look to bounce back from Tuesday’s loss on Thursday when they travel to Bloomfield Hills for another OAA Red matchup.
“When your mind starts to go, your skills get a little bit paralyzed as well. We need to be tougher mentally, across the board,” Smith said of what she hopes her team takes from the loss. “We just have to believe that anything is possible, and they are talented enough to compete with the best.”
The Dragons have another big league matchup next Tuesday when they travel to Birmingham Seaholm for a matchup of unbeaten OAA Red teams.