Injuries Hamper Lady Wolves Volleyball

LINCOLN — Lincoln (0-2, 0-1 3A-1 West) couldn’t sustain momentum after a good start against Mansfield (1-1, 1-0 3A-1 West) and lost three straight games to the visiting Lady Tigers (26-24, 26-24, 12-25, 11-25, 1-15) on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at home.

Subtracted from the Lady Wolves’ rotation are a trio of contributors, all upperclassmen, whose presence on the court was sorely missed. Without junior Keara Wallace, an outside hitter and reserve setter; senior Robin Kirk, a 5-11 middle blocker; and senior Kinley Webb, Lincoln wilted after winning the first two sets battling to identical scores of 26-24.

The patience of Lincoln coach Heath Slammons became a key factor in winning game two.

A pair of Sena Lund kills helped the Lady Wolves jump out to a 4-0 lead. They held leads of 9-3, 14-5, and 17-9 before a 9-1 Mansfield run drew the Lady Tigers within, 18-16. Slammons refused to hit the panic button and call time-out even through Mansfield scored the next point on Brooke Wright’s kill.

Slammons praised Lincoln’s defense for rising to the occasion and forcing Mansfield into consecutive hitting errors. Sophomore Makaylee Reicheneker’s block disrupted the Lady Tigers, who hit the ball into the net, giving Lincoln a 21-17 advantage.

“It’s something that we’ve really been working on this year. We’ve been really trying to make sure that our defense is on point cause we lost some pretty big players,” Slammons said. “We lost three players this year to injuries. We’ve been plagued the last two years by injuries. It’s been unfortunate, but (they) decided they were just going to come back and figure it out. I think some people took a leadership role and were giving the kids on the court what they needed to give to make sure that we’re going to finish it off.”

Wright served back-to-back aces to cap a 3-0 mini run by Mansfield, again bringing the Lady Tigers within a point at 21-20. Mansfield tied the game at 22-22 when Lincoln missed a tip. Then Slammons took time-out, but had to allow the Lady Wolves to play through adversity when the match resumed.

A Lincoln hitting error put the Lady Wolves in a 23-22 deficit, but Mansfield then hit long. Reicheneker brought Lincoln to game-point, at 24-23, with an ace, but Sadie Robert evened the score with a kill. Lincoln scored the final two points on Mansfield hitting errors to win game two, 26-24.

Slammons said volleyball’s played at a different tempo and he can’t just call timeout whenever things get out of hand.

“You’ve got to let them figure it out cause you can’t just sub people in and off the court like we would want to or like we get to in basketball or something like that. So, you definitely have to let the girls kind of figure out what they’re going to do,” Slammons said. “I have enough leaders on this team that I think they can get the team to calm them down and the later sets I probably should have called time-out a little quicker and that’s on me, but with them I think they have enough leadership that they can pull themselves out of there when they really need to so that’s good.”

Lincoln then lost the next three sets as Mansfield pulled off a 3-2 match win. Wallace would have helped, but has been out a lot.

“She tore her ACL again. It’s her second tear in two years,” Slammons said.

Lincoln lost to Booneville 3-1 by scores of 13-25, 20-25, 25-20, and 13-25 on Sept. 5.

Hammons anticipates Kirk and Webb will add a boost to the lineup when they return.

“We’re missing Robin Kirk, our middle blocker, she tore her meniscus so she had surgery. She’ll be back I think in about three weeks time; and then Kinley Webb, another senior on our team, our sixth rotation player, she’s out for a hip injury right now. So, we’re trying to watch it and get them healthy before we bring them back on the court.”

“Hopefully, in the next two weeks we’ll have Kinley back and Robin as well. When we have those two back it’ll be another defensive threat for sure and offensive threat with Robin so we’re looking forward to having them back,” Slammons said.