ND fends off Clay in four sets, clinches share of SOC I crown
· Yahoo Sports
PORTSMOUTH — Volleyball matches between the Clay Panthers’ and Notre Dame Titans’ volleyball programs never disappoint.
That was the case once again on Thursday evening, as the top two programs in the SOC I clashed in a dandy of a rivalry contest at Notre Dame High School on Portsmouth’s Sunrise Avenue.
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Ultimately, Notre Dame fended off a scrappy effort by Clay and showed the attention to detail that has allowed the Lady Titans to go 8-0 against SOC I competition and defeat an archrival that has a tremendous amount of skill in its own right twice in one season, as Jaysa Bryant’s 26 kills and five blocks and Sophie Phillips’ 25 kills led Drew Novinger-Phillips’ squad past Elin Shaw’s 24 kills, 14 kills and four blocks from Alayna Shepherd and Clay Cottle’s group in a four-set dandy.
The battle between the SOC I’s top two teams, Novinger-Phillips said, was expected to be a dandy, and it was exactly that for much of Thursday’s match.
“We knew that the match was going to be tough going into it,” Novinger-Phillips said. “There’s a lot on the line in the SOC, so the girls were just ready. They came out there in that fourth set after losing the third one, and were determined to take it. I am really proud of them. The girls worked so hard to make sure that they didn’t lose the fourth set.”
Coming out on a heater in the opening set, Bryant helped Notre Dame take an early lead in the first frame by posting three kills and two blocks in the opening nine volleys as the Lady Titans took a 7-2 lead.
But behind Shaw’s relentless attacking, Clay erased the early deficit with relative ease, with the junior frontline player posting six kills and a block over the first 15 volleys of the match — and four kills and a block during a 6-0 run for the Lady Panthers that put Clay back in front by an 8-7 margin.
Notre Dame rallied to take the lead back and led by as much as four points, taking a 16-12 lead on a kill by Phillips, but Clay rallied again and took leads of 19-18 and 21-20 off of a block by Shepherd and a kill by Shepherd. Two kills by Phillips and an ace by Rudy Webb ultimately allowed Notre Dame to take a 23-22 lead, where Clay burned its first timeout of the opening set.
Facing set point, a serving error tied the score at 24-all, and, after a kill by Bryant, two kills by Shaw put Notre Dame on the ropes as Clay now had matters at set point, leading 26-25 and forcing the Lady Titans to burn a timeout.
But again, Notre Dame rallied. The Lady Titans ultimately scored the set’s last three points, as back-to-back kills by Bryant, which again put the match at set point for the Lady Titans, was followed by a blocking error that was called following a Clay timeout that gave Notre Dame a 28-26 first set win.
Of her 26 kills for the match, Bryant posted nine kills in the opening set alone, while posting two of her five blocks in the same frame as well. The younger Phillips, who has been a distinguished player on both the front and back lines for Notre Dame, added in four spikes.
“We rely on them a great deal,” Novinger-Phillips said. “They did really well. They knew that they wanted it, and they came out here to try to prove themselves. I believe that they did.”
Fueled by its performance to close the opening set, Notre Dame took a 7-1 lead to begin the second frame as Phillips peppered in two aces around two kills to give the Lady Titans the early lead.
But trailing by an 11-5 margin later in the set, Clay made matters interesting again as Shepherd and senior setter Addie Willis got involved. The Lady Panthers went on a 6-0 run with Willis and Shepherd each posting two total blocks and Shepherd spraying in two kills to boot during the run, while Clay’s Keira Hicks posted an ace to draw the set even at 11-all.
At that point, however, Bryant got cooking on the attack again.
No. 13 ultimately posted four kills and a block in a six-volley span, while Phillips added in two more kills as the Lady Titans turned the 11-all tie into an 18-13 lead. Clay got three kills over the next four volleys from Shaw to draw within 18-17, but that proved to be as close as the Lady Panthers got over the rest of the set as Bryant’s four kills in a 7-1 run finished the set off with Notre Dame taking the set, 25-19, and grabbing a 2-0 match lead.
Clay, however, countered in the third frame.
Down 12-9 to begin the third stanza, the Lady Panthers ralled back as Shaw and Shepherd relentlessly attacked with the duo combining for six kills and Willis, the team’s star setter, spraying in a clever quick strike to help Clay take control.
Their play was central in the Lady Panthers rallying from the three-volley deficit with a set-ending 16-7 run to claim its own 25-19 triumph in the third set.
But after dropping the third frame, Notre Dame simply didn’t allow the same to occur in the fourth set.
Ahead by a 6-3 margin in the fourth frame, the Lady Titans’ defensive coverage, led by Bella Rush, Ryan Purcell, Rudy Webb, Tinleigh Coriell and Charlotte Wallace, stood out, as their cerebral play allowed Notre Dame to constantly remain on the attack. Notre Dame ended the final stanza of play on a 19-4 run, with Phillips posting a set-high eight kills to close out the match.
“We talked about that,” Novinger-Phillips said of Notre Dame’s attention to detail defensively. “We knew they had great hitters who could put the ball down. We tried to watch film, prepare for that, and talk about where to be on the floor. The girls certainly put in the attention to detail and did a great job executing. I’m really proud of them. I knew that they would come out and step up, and they did that.”
With the win, Notre Dame improved to 16-3 overall and 8-0 in the SOC I. The Lady Titans step out of conference briefly against Portsmouth in a match that will be held at Sunrise Avenue on Monday before facing Green and Ironton St. Joseph in back-to-back matches on Tuesday in Franklin Furnace and Wednesday at home. A win in just one of those two matches gives the Lady Titans the SOC I title outright.
“We’re looking toward tournament time and what that’s going to end up looking like,” Novinger-Phillips said. “Right now, they’re just playing really good ball, and hopefully, they just keep rolling on.”
Clay, who stands at 16-4 overall and 6-2 in the SOC I, finishes off the regular season with matches at home against East and Ironton St. Joseph on Tuesday and Thursday in what has been an impressive season for the Lady Panthers.