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Lady Tigers volleyball falls to Webb City at home
Emotions and nerves are always high when Nevada and Webb City come together and clash in any athletic endeavor. Head coach Becky Lowery and the Nevada Lady Tigers volleyball squad proved that to be true once again when they squared off against the Lady Cardinals at Wynn Gymnasium Thursday night.
Though the Lady Tigers have experienced nerves before, Thursday night was a vastly different form of nervousness as the match neared its beginning. In the past, the Lady Tigers have had a tendency to get nervous when playing such a high caliber team as head coach Rhonda Moore's Lady Cardinals simply because they lacked the confidence it takes to carry a team to a win. This time, however, Lowery said nerves were high during pregame warmups simply because her squad knew that Webb City may be a powerhouse, but still could be beatable.
Though that attitude proved to be a substantial motivator as the Lady Tigers played what turned out to be arguably their best match of the year, Webb City simply proved to be too good at taking advantage of every opportunity to score and ultimately came out of the night with a two-set victory by the final scores of 25-17 and 25-16.
"Webb City's a good team. ... So you never know how you're team's going to act," Lowery said.
In stark contrast to what the Lady Tigers have done throughout the year thus far, the Lady Cardinals never were able to get the long runs that have plagued Nevada in nearly every other match this season. Though the Lady Cardinals were able to open up both sets and eventually win by fairly considerable margins, no single run netted them more than three points in either set.
"We'd play really hard and get something good and then just kind of have a little mental lapse there," Lowery said. "Our serve receive was a little inconsistent tonight ... It's still getting better, but we kind of get in a rut and let them get a little run on us, but, I mean, we just kept coming back."
In the opening set, the Lady Tigers got a quick boost of momentum as they were able to put the ball on the floor first against the very talented Webb City defense. That momentum didn't last long, however, as the Lady Cardinals were quickly able to start taking advantage of the minor inconsistencies that continue to crop up on occasion in the Lady Tigers' play.
The two squads played a very even match throughout most of the opening set, but Webb City was slowly able to creep further and further ahead thanks to four missed serves from the Lady Tigers and some minor serve receive and passing troubles. Before the Lady Tigers were able to recover from those struggles, they found themselves in a seven-point hole at 24-17 and were unable to make a comeback as Webb City converted on its first attempt at game point to take the opener, 25-17.
"We hung with them all night long, and in game one, we missed four serves," Lowery said. "And that could have made a big difference because that's four points we could have gotten, minus for they ended up getting because we gave them to them."
Though the Lady Tigers stepped up their play and kept constant pressure on Webb City in the second set, things didn't end up much better. Neither team was able to open up more than a two-point advantage until the Lady Cardinals began to show the urgency and desire they have been known for over the years and slowly pulled away near the midpoint of the set.
The Lady Cardinals were ultimately able to simply muscle the ball through the gaps in Nevada's rotation and the remainder of the second set looked very similar to the first. By the time all was said and done, the Lady Cardinals eventually worked their way to an eight-point lead at 24-16 before closing out the set with a 25-16 victory.
As Lowery has been hoping to see throughout the year, no one player stepped up and dominated on either side of the ball for Nevada. Bailey Harbit led the squad with three blocks on the night while Erica Wagenknecht notched five digs, but a total of five Lady Tigers finished the night with either two or three kills.
Nevada's freshmen and JV were both in action on the night as well and ultimately came out with much better results. The freshmen squad won in two sets, 25-16 and 25-12, while the JV needed three to pick up the victory by the final scores of 25-13, 25-20 and 25-15, only losing the opener.
With that loss, the Lady Tigers' record dropped to 1-3 on the year, but Lowery said that the loss could ultimately prove to be good for the team. Even in defeat, the Lady Tigers proved that they have the talent and ability to play with good teams, which Lowery said to make for a major confidence builder heading into the rest of the season.
"We're building confidence and I think this is going to be a huge boost tonight," she said.