By Scott Vanscoy (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In a contest between two evenly matched foes, the Clever Lady Jays defeated the Reeds Spring Lady Wolves, 2-1, on Tuesday night. Clever used defense and serving to edge defeat Reeds Spring.
“Reeds Spring hit some hard shots,” said Clever coach Angie Wise. “Tessa Newman and Harper Little made some great digs. Our defense was exceptional tonight; our blocking wasn’t so good, and our passing wasn’t so good. We can always rely on our serving and our defense. Tessa is our Libero, and she’s improving every game. Tessa stepped up and she’s getting used to her role. She’s learning a lot and she’s real hard on herself if she makes a mistake. Tonight she made some great passes and digs.”
Clever jumped out early in all three sets, only to see Reeds Spring come back in the first set and win, 25-18. In the second set, Reeds Spring tied the game at 16, to have the Lady Jays outscore them 9-2 to win the set, 25-18. A key moment in the second set occurred when Reeds Spring junior Kalena Asbill was injured on a play, causing her to sit out the rest of the game. Asbill is the Wolves’ main setter so repositioning due to her loss was something the team had to overcome.
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“We run a one setter offense, and our setter is like a quarterback,” said Reeds Spring coach Molly Illum. “Our setter, our quarterback, went down at the beginning of the second set and we had to switch the lineups. MSHSAA regulates how many sets the girls can play in a night and our backup setter had already played three sets of JV, so we had to take another player and put her into a different position and change it all up. Marissa Hatcher is one of our primary hitters and we made her a setter. We had to kind of change our offense completely in one set, and then we made a comeback in the third set, and it was ours to lose.”
Up 12-6 in the third set, Clever allowed Reeds Spring to tie the score at 12 and again at 14. The Lady Wolves fought their way to an 18-14 lead before Clever scored again. With the loud home crowd behind them, the Wolves extended their lead to 20-15 before Clever’s Shelby Riley started to serve. Riley served 10 straight to earn the comeback win, 25-20.
“We didn’t start out very strong but we started getting stronger toward the end,” said Riley. “I’m proud of our mental toughness. We have a lot of determination and we want to win, a lot, because we like winning. If you don’t make serves, it doesn’t even give you the opportunity to make the point. We practice a lot of serving.”
Illum tried to keep a positive spin on the game, even though losing their setter was a difficult thing to try to overcome.
“This team, they are fighters,” said Illum. “If you look across the net at almost given point, the other side is going to be, in every position, taller than us. My girls are small but they are mighty and they battle and they fight, and they don’t give up.”
Playing with consistency and good timing is something Clever has been working on after having to overcome some early season injuries.
“We’ve got four new people in the lineup and we are trying to adjust and get used to those kids,” said Wise. “The third game we got a great start. Toward the end of the game, I just said ‘hey, guys, we’ve worked hard so far, you need to throw all your heart out there these last five points and play like it’s a championship because we need to finish this game off.’ Shelby has struggled with confidence in the past and she did an outstanding job at the end of the game. She watched her coaches, her coaches were calling spots and she was hitting those spots. Even after the time out she stayed focused and finished the job. I’m very proud of her tonight for her mental toughness.”
Thursday night, Reeds Spring will travel to Monett to face the Cubs, while Clever will play host to Springfield Catholic. Catholic is now coached by former long-time Lady Jays coach Teresa Hanafin. Wise said “it should be a good match.”
Clever 18 25 25
Reeds Spring 25 18 20
