BY BRIAN HAMILTON
SEYMOUR – South-Doyle had to rally from a 25-23 loss to Gatlinburg-Pittman in the first set to win the second set 25-15 and the third set 15-7, but the Lady Kees overcame the deficit to win 2-1 and hand the Lady Highlanders an 0-2 start to the season.
“We came in with one game plan and one girl said she didn’t feel good, so we were like, ‘if she goes down, we’ve got to switch things around,’ and that’s what happened that first game,” South-Doyle head coach Allison Jacobs said after the match. “She played through it and I think she’s fine, so we went back to our original game plan and were kind of back to normal.”
Gatlinburg-Pittman opened the first set by taking a 5-1 lead on back-to-back aces from Marlie Bivens. A kill by Ava Lacona would cap a 3-0 run to cut the deficit to 5-4.
The Lady Highlanders would regain their poise to increase the lead to 13-7, but Lady Kees’ Zoey Jacobs got a hot hand serving and sent Doyle on a 7-0 spurt to take a 14-13 advantage.
A kill by Bivens would put Gatlinburg-Pittman back in front 17-15 and the lead was stretched to 22-17 when South-Doyle’s Catalina Gordo hit the ball into the scorers table.
South-Doyle pulled to within 23-22 when Gabrielle Cameron hit the ball into net, but a spike and kill by Bivens ended the contest, giving Gatlinburg-Pittman a 25-23 win in the first set.
South-Doyle’s Kaelei Gibson (24) sends one over the net while Ella Stinnett (24) and Marlie Bivens (22) await. Photo by Brian Hamilton
“(I felt) that first game, we just needed a good warm up,” said Jacobs.
The Lady Kees started the second set strong, jumping out to a 6-1 lead when Bailey Beckner scored a kill. South-Doyle took a 10-3 lead lead on an ace by Aliyah Revels, but on the next serve, Revels couldn’t clear the net, cutting the lead to 10-4.
Doyle went ahead 13-4 on a kill by Avery York, and 18-5 on a kill by Laconca. Gatlinburg-Pittman managed to cut the deficit to 19-8 and went down 22-10 before rallying to make the score 24-15. The Lady Kees would finally put the Lady Highlanders away to win the set 25-15.
The officials decided that the third set would only go to 15, due to the fact that it was a tri-match and the games were running late.
Gatlinburg-Pittman and South-Doyle started the third set by going back and forth, as the Lady Highlanders took a 3-2 lead. South-Doyle tied the contest at 4-4 when Beckner spiked the ball off a GP defender. Becker would hit the ensuing serve out of bounds, however, giving the lead back to the Lady Highlanders.
A kill by South-Doyle’s Jacobs gave the Lady Kees a 6-5 lead and set off a scoring run, as Doyle led 14-5 before Gatlinburg-Pittman scored again.
The Lady Highlanders scored two straight points to make the score 14-7 and stay alive, but South-Doyle would eventually win the match 15-7 and win the set 2-1.
“The girls know our expectations and know what they can do and when they started getting close to us, we were like, ‘no, that’s not how we do things,’ and they pick it up another level, ” Jacobs said. “We can’t always coach that. That has to come from within them.”
The Lady Kees would fall in the nightcap to The King’s Academy.