Lady Steers five-game winning streak snapped, lose in three sets to Wall
WALL — The Lady Steers (7-7) headed into Tuesday night's match against the Wall Lady Hawks (11-2) on a five-game winning streak. That streak came to a halt when Wall was able to defeat Big Spring in three straight sets (25-14, 25-14, 25-14) for the win.
“We just didn't play our best game and they made some more plays than we did,” Lady Steers coach Kaitlyn Braswell said.
Wall was able to put their power and size on display throughout the match while repeatedly making plays at the net. This kind of high-energy play set the tone in the first set for the rest of the match. The Lady Steers also had trouble during the second half of each set which allowed the Lady Hawks to pull away for their three set wins.
In the first set, Big Spring started out on a 3-0 run and the team appeared to be heating up early. Wall took their first lead of the set with the score at 6-5 and never looked back. There were some great plays made by Big Spring's Ryen Terrazas and Kalyn Whitehead, but Wall was still able to pull away during the second half of the set.
On one play, Whitehead made a nice diving play and saved the ball right before it hit the ground. It seemed like a play that could swing momentum back in the Lady Steers' direction for the remainder of the set. Instead, Wall's #4 sent a harrowing spike into the hardwood that gave the Lady Hawks the point. Wall then went on to win the first set 25-14 and continued their success into the second set.
Wall started off the next set with an ace serve from #11 and they never looked back. The Lady Hawks were able to control the game with their impressive ball placement that always seemed to find the Lady Steers out of position. The Lady Hawks also had a few players capable of knocking a Lady Steer off their feet just from the power and accuracy of their serve. Once again, Big Spring had trouble scoring consistently to get themselves back in the game and dropped the second set by a score of 25-14 as well.
“They has some powerful hitters and it was hard to make plays over them at the net,” Braswell said. “We'll just have to work on what to do against players like that at practice this week and hopefully put together a better performance this weekend.”
The third and final set of the match was completely controlled by Wall from the start. With Big Spring leading early in the set 3-2, Wall quickly scored seven straight points to give themselves a 9-3 lead. On one play during the set, Big Spring's Jocelyn Gonzales made two diving plays to save the ball from hitting the ground and Wall was still able to score the point. The Lady Hawks were hard to find out of position and they asserted themselves as the better team on Tuesday night with a three-set victory after winning the third set by a score of 25-14 once again.
“There were some good things, but there are also some things that we definitely need to work on,” Braswell said. “We'll get back to work and be ready to roll again this weekend.”
UP NEXT: The Lady Steers (7-7) will host Jim Ned on Saturday morning inside Steer Gym. The Varsity will play at noon.
Shawn Moran is the sports writer at the Big Spring Herald. To contact him, e-mail sports@bigspringherald.com or call 432-263-7331.