Gracie Perry handles a hot shot to the back row to start a potential scoring opportunity for the JV Lady Jackets against Murphy.
With the volleyball season creeping ever closer to an end, each match becomes more important. Hayesville’s high school teams wrapped up their pre-Christmas schedule with a home match against Murphy on Wednesday, Dec. 16 and the varsity squad took on Rosman on the road Friday, Dec. 18.
The JV Lady Yellow Jackets took to their home court against Murphy looking to keep their winning ways going. A win looked to be in serious Jeopardy in the first set. The Lady Bulldogs stunned Hayesville’s fans with a 25-15 win to take an early 1-0 match lead.
Set two was a spotlight on equality as the pair of rivals played a game of “anything you can do I can do better.” Eventually the Lady Jackets took ownership of the lead and avoided being swept with a 25-22 win
The third and deciding set was a continuation of the battle featured in set two. Each point scored raised the pulse of fans as the teams raced to the needed 15 points. Like a movie that was too good to end, so was the set. The requirement of winning by 2 points pushed things into overtime that ended with the Lady Jackets getting the 22-19 win to send their rivals home with a loss.
On the varsity side of things, Murphy entered the match ranked ninth in the state. That didn’t seem to phase the Lady Jackets early on and the home team managed to not only snag to lead, but also pulled away.
Following a timeout, the Lady Bulldogs clicked and came roaring back to take the advantage. Hayesville tried to battle back but Murphy wasn’t having it and won the set 25-20.
The loss seemed to take the wind out of the Lady Jackets’ sails. That, coupled with Murphy finding their rhythm meant sets two and three were tough ones for the home team. The Lady Bulldogs took the second set 25-15 and followed that up with a match-sealing 25-10 victory in the third set.
Unfortunately for Hayesville, the result was no better in Rosman on Friday. With no JV game, the varsity squads followed the middle school match. Set one was all Lady Tigers with Rosman getting a statement win by the score of 25-9.
The Lady Yellow Jackets were able to stay closer in the second set, but Rosman pulled away to get the 25-18 victory. Momentum stayed with the Lady Tigers and they won the third set 25-18.
After taking Christmas week off from competition, Hayesville’s varsity team will head to Andrews Tuesday, Dec. 29. Andrews does not have a JV team so the JV Lady Jackets will have the day off.