EARLY – The District 8-3A volleyball opener didn’t go the way Early head coach Natalie Whitewood had envisioned Tuesday night, as the host Lady Horns dropped a straight-set decision to the Dublin Lady Lions, 25-21, 25-20, 25-22.
“I thought we played OK,” Whitewood said. “I think we’re in transition between finding a leader, finding someone who is going to take over on the court. We have to find the person that will step up and take over games for us.”
Carrigan Norris, Taylor Summers and Alexa Portillo each finished with seven kills for Early followed by Grecia Yebra with one.
Summers dished out 10 assists while Bethany Tomlinson contributed nine.
Summers and Tori Wood-Rush served aces for the Lady Horns.
On defense, Grace LaRue recorded 15 digs trailed by Summers with four, Portillo with three, Tomlinson with two and Madie Waldorf with one.
At the net, Savannah Holt logged four blocks and Yebra added one.
“We never quit, they kept fighting even when we were down, they kept pushing,” Whitewood said. “If we eliminate our missed serves in the first two sets we’re right back where we need to be. We also had to switch some people around. Some people weren’t playing super well so we switched mid-set and it worked great for us.”
In the opening set, Early trailed 16-11 but reeled off five straight points – thanks to a block from Holt and a couple of kills from Summers – to draw even at 16. However, the Lady Horns surrendered the next five points to fall behind 21-16 and were unable to recover.
The second set saw the Lady Horns fall into an 11-4 hole. Early gradually attempted to rally, closing the gap to 22-20 at one point, but were unable to complete the comeback.
In the final set, Early gave up seven of the first nine points and trailed 14-9 before tallying nine points in a row to open an 18-14 edge. With Portillo serving, Early received two kills from Norris, one from Portillo and a block by Yebra for points, along with Dublin unforced errors.
Dublin clawed its way back and knotted the score at 21 when Early was whistled for a rotation violation. A hitting error by the Lady Horns coupled with a Dublin block put Early in a 23-21 hole. Miscommunication on the Lady Lions’ end resulted in the ball hitting the floor for Early’s 22nd point, but Dublin bounced back and notched the final two points to complete the sweep.
“We have a tendency to get down on ourselves and don’t know how to pick ourselves back up,” Whitewood said. “We’ve been working on that for four years and we’re going to keep on working at it until we get it right. They’re going to figure it out one day.”
The Lady Horns (5-4, 0-1) are back in action at noon Saturday as Comanche visits.
“I’m excited because last year we beat them twice and the year before we either beat them both times or split,” Whitewood said. “I feel confident but not overconfident because we have to get back in the win column.”
