GREENVILLE – The Lady Wave dropped a five-set volleyball match to the visiting Xenia Lady Buccaneers 3-2 in a Tuesday night MVL matchup.
“I had confidence in them, I always have confidence in them,” said veteran Greenville coach Michelle Hardesty. “We are generally a pretty scrappy team; they were a little scrappier back tonight.”
Greenville was coming off a hard-fought 5-set Monday night road MVL win over the Troy Lady Trojans and a second-place finish in the Saturday Greenville Federal Volleyball tournament at Arcanum.
“We played five sets last night, played three matches on Saturday, it’s a tough stretch for us,” Hardested stated. “Excuses aside, I told the girls we have to figure out how to play those scrappier teams and stay positive and get quicker.”
Greenville bolted out to a 9-0 lead, bringing a timeout from the Lady Buccaneers bench in the opening set. The Lady Wave extended its lead to 14-3 with Xenia battling back to make it a 19-13 GHS lead. The Lady Wave regrouped and made a 6-3 run to take the opening set 25-16 and a 1-0 advantage.
The Lady Wave struggled in set No. 2, falling to the visitors 17-25, but rebounded to win the third set of the night 25-22 and lead 2-1.
Set No. 4 saw the teams tied at 12-12 and 18-18, with the Lady Wave using a 3-0 run to grab the momentum and take a 21-18 lead. Xenia took advantage of a timeout to close out the set with a 7-1 scoring run and a 25-22 win, sending the match to a fifth and deciding set.
“I pride our team on teaching them fundamentals that are going to get them to another level in passing, setting, and hitting,” said Coach Hardesty. “We didn’t do a lot of tipping tonight, trying to get through those blocks. That didn’t work for us tonight, but they tried. They put forth a good effort.
Xenia won the deciding set by a score of 15-12 to earn the 3-2 conference win.
“We’ll get another shot at them and hopefully get a win,” Hardesty concluded.
