The South Greene volleyball team stayed perfect in District 1-A play on Thursday night by picking up a 3-1 win at West Greene, 25-19, 25-16, 20-25, 25-17.
“It’s good to get a conference game on the road. Our conference is getting better and there is more parity in the league. Anytime you can get a win on the road it gives you a leg up, and now we’re the only undefeated team in the league,” South Greene coach Stephen Gregg said.
The Lady Rebels have now made one rotation through the league schedule, and now Gregg will look for his squad to make the push necessary to be in top form once the postseason arrives.
“In our second set we played a brand new rotation and we were pretty dominant. Then in the third set that rotation did not look so good,” Gregg said. “We’re working on a lot of X’s and O’s right now and trying some different things. We still have a lot of work to do, but this group has been a lot of fun to work with. I feel like we are going to get better.”
West Greene is now 5-2 on the year, and 1-2 in District 1-A.
Thursday’s action started with the teams trading points in the beginning of the first set, but South Greene’s Emma Padgett found the first breathing room with a kill a that made it 7-5.
South Greene’s advantage grew to 15-9 after Ava Brobeck came up with a block and Kinley McCaslin put down a kill from the left side. After two more McCaslin kills that lead moved to 18-10.
Deborah Julian broke the streak with a right-side kill for West Greene and with Madi Evans serving South Greene’s lead shrank to 18-14.
South Greene got some big swings from Padgett and McCaslin in the closing stretch as two combined for five more kills in the 25-19 win.
McCaslin picked up where she left off in the first set and got the second set started with slam from the middle of the net before South Greene jumped in front 4-0.
West Greene was able to extend volleys and take advantage of South Greene mistakes, and when Kahlie Edwards landed an ace the gap closed to 8-7.
McCaslin broke the run with a slam from the left side, and South Greene scored seven straight points on the way to a 15-7 lead. In that stretch McCaslin hammered four kills and Heidey Dean dropped a pair of aces on the Lady Buffaloes.
McCaslin had a big day for the Lady Rebels and finished the contest with 19 kills.
“Kinley had a real good matchup when she was up front and she did a good job taking advantage. Emma had a tougher block, but they are great one-two combination. They are both getting more confident playing off the back line as well, which is big for us,” Gregg said.
The teams traded points to the finish before South Greene claimed a 25-16 win to go up 2-0.
West Greene was not going to make it easy on the Lady Rebels and scored the first four points of the third sets, highlighted by tough block from Aleea Aiken.
West Greene’s Journey Lamons and South Greene’s Padgett entered a stretch where they began to trade blows. Each had two kills and a block as the Lady Buffaloes stayed in front at 7-5.
A first-hit tip by Julian stretched West Greene’s advantage to 13-9.
In the late stages a kill from South Greene’s Riley Southerland closed the gap to 15-14, and a tip by Padgett cut it to 17-16.
A smartly placed tip by McCaslin tied things at 19-19, but a missed kill by the Lady Rebels immediately followed.
West Greene finished things out with aces from Edwards and Carleigh Williams while Morgan Moody scored on a pair of tips for the 25-20 win.
Undeterred South Greene found new life in the fourth set and a lot of that came from libero Ella Bailey’s hustle on the back row.
“What about that effort from Ella Bailey? She was all over the place tonight,” Gregg said. “This was probably the best game she has had at South Greene. She is running down the court going after shanked balls, and that kind of effort is what it takes to be successful.”
After and ace by dean and one of Padgett’s big swings from the left side the Lady Rebels jumped in front 5-1.
Padgett continued to control things with two more kills and ace from the service line as South Greene stayed in front at 8-3.
Jaelynn Fillers tricked the defense with a dump to make it 12-5.
A stretch that saw McCaslin drop in a kill from the back row, Padgett slam one from the left side and Dean win with an ace put the Lady Rebels on top 17-10.
West Greene tried to close the gap with kills from Lamons, Williams and Julian but South Greene held a comfortable lead to the finish.
The Lady Rebels closed the 25-17 on a sneaky tip from Padgett.
South Greene will now spend the weekend at a tournament in Gatlinburg looking to test itself against high-level competition.
West Greene will be back in action on Tuesday at Happy Valley.
