Rising Sun volleyball coach Rich Wilson was anxious to see how his team would respond to a little adversity. He was pleased by what he witnessed. The Tigers rebounded from a second-set deficit and went on to sweep host Perryville 25-12, 25-23, 25-14 Tuesday afternoon, September 19. The Panthers led for most of game two and held a 19-13 lead at one juncture. "I thought it was kind of neat," said Wilson. "Seeing what the team did when it was behind is important. Staying calm and collected. It was 17-21 when I called my last timeout. I said, 'Look, just relax. Just relax. Play your game. And I think they just took like a deep breath and started digging their way back into that game. So, it was us being off, them being on. Just like the first game, we were on, they were off. In the third game I guess we were on and they were off. I just can't figure it out. Igave up trying to figure these things out a long, long time ago. You take what comes along and just be happy with it…It was good. We need to be pushed. We hadn't been pushed yet."
Rising Sun last lost a set to a conference opponent in the October 30, 2013, UCBAC championship match. Perryville captured the third set 25-18 before Rising Sun won in four. The Tigers have not dropped an UCBAC match since suffering a four-set defeat to C. Milton Wright on October 24, 2012. "So…," Wilson said. "What happened in the second set? They started serving very well. They put us back on our heels. I think the first set was so easy, which is natural there's a little letdown. We let down and they came up. And it really rocked us." "I feel like we just kind of got into our own heads," said Mackenzie Blevins, who led the Tigers with 11 kills and 21 assists. "You could see the energy level hit the ground. So we tried to stay positive during the whole thing. Obviously it's tough when you keep messing up but we pulled together in the end and pushed through." Once Rising Sun rebounded to take game two, the third game was most like the opening set. "Going in with that momentum I knew we had a much better shot of at least playing a lot better than we did the second game," said Blevins. "Our energy level was a lot higher. We communicated a lot more. Everything was positive. It wasn't so much getting angry at ourselves or each other. We were all working together." Down two starters, the Tigers received contributions from Jasmyne Moore and Marley Spencer. Moore had three kills and Spencer supplied a kill and a dig. "People who wouldn't normally get a lot of playing time were stepping up and playing well," Wilson said. "So I was happy from that standpoint." Grace Webb provided nine kills, Emily Jackson added seven, and Liz Zatalava chipped in three. For Perryville, Alex Leslie recorded five kills. Jordan Carr collected 12 assists, two kills, and two digs. Hailey Jones had 21 digs and Brooke Reynolds registered five digs and three aces. Comments are closed.
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