Lady Wolves take only upset, down Jacksonville in tourney
Despite falling 25-22 to Jacksonville in the first set, Lake Hamilton went head-tohead in the next three rounds, ultimately overpowering the Lady Titans in every aspect of the game en route to a 3-1 win, sending the Lady Wolves to the Class 5A state quarterfinals today at 1 p.m. against Greenwood.
The Lady Wolves managed to maintain a slight edge over Jacksonville (14-8) throughout the course of the opening set, as the back-and-forth affair kept fans on the edge of their seats.
Trailing the Lady Wolves (13-7) by two, 16-14, the Lady Titans found some gaps on Lake Hamilton’s end of the court and rallied behind their front row attackers.
Lake Hamilton wasted no time in responding to losing the first set by taking an early 8-3 lead in the second, thanks in part to the service of senior Savannah
Brown.
The Lady Titans regained service before Lake Hamilton junior Kynzee Dixon stepped to the backline for four straight to stretch her team’s lead out to 14-4. Tia Mullenix put up three straight service points to stretch out to
18-5.
Jacksonville rallied late, but the spread was too much to overcome as the Lady Wolves wrapped things up with a 25-15 win going into the third.
After trailing Lake Hamilton 3-2, Jacksonville pulled to a 4-3 lead before the Lady Wolves drew the score at 6-6 until senior libero Hayzley Irwin tipped the scale, 8-6, after serving up two straight, and classmate Jessalyn Heckel added an ace to make it 10-7.
Lake Hamilton stretched a 21-17 lead into the
25-18 win with Irwin serving up two en route to the 25-18 win of the third set.
Jacksonville jumped out to an early 5-1 lead before Lake Hamilton cut the lead to 8-6. Dixon went on to earn four straight service points including a pair of aces, bouncing the Lady
Wolves back to a 12-8 lead in the final set.
Nylah Fears went on a three-point service run of her own after stepping to Jacksonville’s backline to pull the Lady Titans within 12-11, and Mullenix served up three for a 15-11 Lake Hamilton buffer.
After Irwin propeled Lake Hamilton’s score to 19-13 following three straight serves, it was a point-for-point game going into the late stages of the fourth until Brown sent over an ace to close out the match with a 25-19 win.
Heckel paced the Lady Wolves with 15 assists, nine kills, a pair of aces and two digs, and junior Risa Richens logged a game-high 10 kills while adding five assists, one block and a dig. Irwin dominated the back row with 17 digs with one ace, and Dixon tallied two attacks, a pair of aces, two digs and two assists.
Mullenix popped up four digs while adding two kills, and Campbell logged four kills, one ace and two assists. Sophomore Audri Winfrey had seven kills and three digs while Brown added four kills, one dig and three aces.