It was one winning streak Rising Sun volleyball coach Rich Wilson didn't mind see come to an end. The Tigers' string of 41 straight regular season victories ended Wednesday night with a loss at undefeated Delaware Military Academy, two-time reigning state champs and the Number 1 ranked team in Delaware. The Seahawks prevailed 14-25, 21-25, 25-18, 25-16, 15-7. Much more significantly, Rising Sun prepped for the playoffs by playing by far its most challenging opponent of the season in an electric atmosphere. "It's exactly what I wanted," said Rising Sun coach Rich Wilson. "It's exactly what I wanted for this time of year – a good, hard volleyball match in a noisy arena. That's exactly what I told them [the night before] that I was after." The Seahawks battled back and won games three and four to force the decisive fifth game. In game five, DMA scored the first two points before Rising Sun responded to take a 3-2 lead when Breanne Haley's serve hit the top of the net and dribbled over for an ace. DMA took command by winning three straight points and six of the next seven. The Seahawks led by at least three points the rest of the way. "That was the best game I've every played in," said Rising Sun outside hitter Breanne Haley. "It was so much fun. We wanted to win. We lost but we're so happy that we played well." Haley led the Tigers with 13 kills and Lacey Swartout added 10. Maddy Eckerd recorded seven blocks and Mackenzie Blevins chipped in five. Everyone but the Tigers seemed stunned when they dominated the opening game. Rising Sun won the first four points, stormed out to an 18-8 lead, then cruised. In game two, Rising Sun rallied from behind. With the score tied at 19-19, the Tigers tallied five straight points highlighted by two kills by Haley and a block by Mackenzie Blevins. The tide turned in game three as DMA started mixing in some dinks which kept the Tigers off balance. "They started dinking and we were a little slow to pick it up," said Wilson. "Really, the difference in the first two games was our block. We shut down their hitting. Then when they started dinking it took the effectiveness of the blocking away. And their blocking seemed to get stronger as the night went on, especially on our outsides. They're a good team." Rising Sun fell behind in the third game and could not recover. "At the end of the third game we started to get tentative," Wilson said. "We weren't playing free. We weren't playing loose. You play with a not-to-lose attitude. The old prevent defense kind of thing. So I tried to get them out of that mindset." DMA pulled away in the middle of game four to tie the match. "We slowed down a little bit," Haley said. "We got back on our heels. Coach said we were tentative. We played like we didn't want to make mistakes so we made mistakes." Rising Sun had swept its previous 13 matches so a five-game match in DMA's raucous gym/cafeteria came at the right time. "It gets us ready" said Haley. "We're ready to go. We're ready to play five sets and it was a great atmosphere, just like states." The Tigers fell just short in their bid for a third straight undefeated regular season. Rising Sun last lost a regular season match on October 25, 2012. On that night, the Tigers lost a four-game match to C. Milton Wright, then won 41 consecutive regular season matches. Wilson said the loss was disappointing but certainly not discouraging. "When you're up 2-0 and you end up losing 3-2, there's disappointment," said Wilson. "If you were to ride home on the bus with us, they'd be singing and dancing. Athletes enjoy this kind of competition. So, yeah, it'd be nice to win, but they really enjoyed themselves. You could see them in the huddle. They're not crestfallen. Half of them have smiles on their faces because this is fun." Comments are closed.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2018
|