South falls to Edinburgh in sectional final
Oct. 17—WALDRON — The Waldron Lady Mohawks may not have defeated South Decatur in the volleyball semifinal, but the Lady Mohawks may have aided in Edinburgh's sectional title win.
South rallied from two sets down to defeated host Waldron in a back-and-forth battle in the sectional semifinal 25-27, 22-25, 27-25, 26-24 and 15-11. Three of the four sets were extended past the 25-point mark as momentum shifted throughout each set. The largest lead for either team was just five points.
After rallying to win sets three and four, South dug deep to put forth another comeback. The Lady Cougars rallied from two sets down in the sectional opener against Southwestern (Shelby) and repeated that feat the semifinal to advance to the sectional final against Edinburgh.
In the championship match, South battled for three sets, but appeared to be a little tired after the long, stressful semifinal match. The Lady Lancers took advantage and eliminated the Lady Cougars 25-17, 25-17 and 25-13 to win the sectional title.
In the opening set, Edinburgh jumped out to a 7-4 lead. South started a rally with a Molly Eden block. With South trailing 9-7, Edinburgh had a miss hit and then could not return Paige McQueen serve and the set was knotted at 9-9.
The set was tied at 11-11 and 12-12 before Edinburgh took its final lead at 16-15 on a Mackenzie Bieker kill. Although the Lady Lancers never trailed again in the set, South closed the gap to 18-17 on a Makayla Somers ace. Edinburgh ran off the next seven points to win the first set 25-17.
In the second set, the Lady Cougars built a 9-6 lead an Eden serve. Edinburgh hit out on the next serve and the lead went to 10-6 for South. That is when the first signs that South might be worn from the earlier match started to show up. Edinburgh scored the next 10 points to grab a 16-10 lead.
After Somers pushed the ball over for a point for the Lady Cougars, the Lady Lancers went on a 7-0 lead to lead 23-11. South did not quit and closed the deficit to 24-17 before a Jessica Walsh kill gave Edinburgh the set 25-17.
The teams traded points to open the third set. Sharp hit off the Edinburgh block to tie the game 1-1 and then added a kill to make it 2-2. The Lady Cougars went up 5-3 as Somers got the point for South. After an Edinburgh kill, South's Sophia Bushhorn put the ball away to push the lead back to two points.
Edinburgh tied the set at 7-7 on a Gracie Crawhorn kill. With the set even at 9-9, Crawhorn's hit from the back row started a 5-0 run to put the Lady Lancers in front 14-9.
Another Bushhorn attack closed the gap to 14-11, but that was as close as the Lady Cougars could get the rest of the way. Edinburgh closed out the match with an 11-2 run.
South finishes the season at 16-14.
Contact Aaron Kirchoff at aaron.kirchoff@greensburgdailynews.com
