GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave defeated Sidney to close out regular season volleyball play to earn an MVL 3-1 senior night win over the visiting Lady Yellow Jackets.
Greenville honored three seniors; No. 1 Skylar Bryson, No. 8 Mya Conway, and No. 22 Ava Loudy prior to the varsity match.
In the night’s opening set, the 14-4 (16-6) Lady Wave battled back to defeat the 11-7 (12-10) MVL Valley Division-leading Lady Yellow Jackets 25-21.
Greenville bolted out to an early first-set 10-2 lead only to have the visitors take advantage of a 14-2 run and a 16-12 advantage. The Lady Wave used a 4-0 run to even the set at 16-16 but quickly fell behind 17-19 before outscoring the Lady Jackets 9-5 to earn a 25-21 first set win and take a 1-0 lead on the night.
Set No. 2 had Greenville jumping out to a 10-3 early lead while getting its first double-digit leads of the night at 16-6, 17-7, 18-8, 20-10, and 21-11 with Sidney making a move to close the gap to 22-15 bringing a timeout from the Greenville Bench. The Lady Wave closed with 3-1 scoring to win 25-16 and lead 2-0.
Greenville started set No. 3 with a 5-3 lead when senior Skylar Bryson went down with an injury bringing the game to a halt. Rattle by the injury, the Lady Wave struggled in third set play falling to the visitors 19-25.
“Sidney is never easy but we appreciate the challenge,” said Coach Hardesty. “When Skylar went down there in that third set we all got a little down on ourselves and concerned for her of course. We didn’t finish that set but we came back strong in the fourth set and got that senior night victory for us.”
“We should have won in three,” said assistant coach, Jim Hardesty. “Skylar kind of threw us for a loop there for a hot minute but this is why it pays to have those freshmen in a playing because they came in and did a great job.”
Bryson returned to the starting lineup to open fourth set play but soon would spend the balance of the night on the bench as the Lady Wave would move out to an 8-4 lead on its way to a 25-19 conference victory.
“Offensively Brooke Schmidt had another big night (21 kills) and Shyanne Gibboney passed the heck out of the ball tonight,” Jim Hardesty noted. “That is key to what we do.”
With the win Greenville settled for a third-place finish in the much stronger MVL Miami Division behind the undefeated 18-0 (22-0) Tippecanoe Lady Red Devils and the 16-2 (18-4) Butler Lady Aviators. On the season, Greenville swept Troy, Piqua, Sidney, West Carrollton, Xenia, Fairborn, and Stebbins each 2-0 in Miami Valley League action.
Coach Michelle Hardesty took time following the Senior Night win to talk about her seniors.
“Skylar Bryson is a four-year varsity starter who originally started out as a libero,” she said. “We saw her potential with her jumping ability and she felt it too and wanted to transition into a hitter. She’s a Captain, she has lots of energy, brings lots of energy to the court and that excitement to the team, and a great swing and a serve. She’s been a vital part of our program the last four years, four of the six that we’ve been here and she is going to be greatly missed.”
Ava Loudy and Mya Conway are right side and switched off and on and did a great job this season for us,” Hardesty said. “They were willing to do whatever was asked of them, they played a big role in each one of our victories, got better as the season progressed, been very supportive of the program the last four years, both very giving of themselves.”
“I can’t say enough good things about all three of the seniors,” Coach Hardesty added. “Super pleased with all three of them, they are going to be greatly missed.”
The No. 5 seed Lady Wave opens OHSAA DII tournament play on Tuesday, October 17 taking on the No. 8 seed Benjamin Logan Lady Raiders at Tecumseh High School with a 5 p.m. start time.
“The team we’re going to play in the first round of sectionals plays the same way Sidney does,” said Jim Hardesty. “Their outside hitters are really good. We have to defend the outside which I thought we did a great job today.”
