NEW MARKET — Things didn’t gel for South’s volleyball team in a 3-1 non-conference volleyball loss to Cascade.
Neither the offense or defense had quite enough, as the Mounties fall to 1-6 for the season in the 14-25, 11-25, 25-22, 17-25 loss, while the Cadets move to 7-6.
“We had a good practice Wednesday,” South co-Head Coach Casey Phillips said, “but we just came out sluggish tonight. We were slow to move, our communication wasn’t so good. We made some changes and won the third set, but then in the fourth set, our defense just wasn’t there.”
The first two sets were very similar. The Cadets jumped out to an early lead, South had a small rally, and then Cascade finished the set.
The third set saw both teams change up their lineups. The Mounties took advantage of multiple Cadets errors, got a pair of service aces from Kalli Todd, plus two kills from the junior, and carved out the win.
The fourth set had South with a 6-4 lead, but Cascade caught fire and carried through to end the match.
“We started strong, but our defense struggled a little,” Cascade coach Stacie Minardo said. “It’s been a good week, though. We played our best match of the year Tuesday, and even though we lost to Danville, we will build on that. We have the potential to have a successful season and compete for a sectional.”
For the Mounties, it is a season-long work in progress.
“We worked a lot recently on finding the holes in the other team’s defense,” Phillips said. “We are getting better at that. It’s just a few little things that we need to continue to improve on. Tomorrow we will work on ball placement some more, focus on defense and get ready for our conference game Saturday against Western Boone.”
The Mounties were led by Megan Remley with eight kills, followed by Todd with six. Makia Pierce and Cheyenne Shaw each had five.
Chelsea Veatch led her squad with a dozen assists. The junior also had a team-best 17 digs, while Tayler Anderson had 15. Remley and Todd each had two aces.
South’s Sagamore matchup with the Stars is at home, with a 1:30 scheduled start.
