Hume bests Sheldon in conference matchup

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

Nevada Daily Mail

The Hume Lady Hornets volleyball team had a bit of a scare in the second game of its match against the Sheldon Lady Panthers, but came away with the victory in two games 25-10 and 25-15, Tuesday night in Sheldon.

Noah Jones/Daily Mail/ Hume's Megan Sutcliffe (9) strikes the ball for a kill in the second game against Sheldon, Tuesday night at Sheldon.

The Hornets won their first game handedly, going on runs of at least four points three times including a run of six points near the start of the game.

On that run, Sheldon committed several unforced errors, but Hannah Swickhamer and Brhett Mumma collected kills.

The second game was much closer. Sheldon opened the game with an 8-4 run, and collected six of those points consecutively, forcing Hume to call a timeout.

Hornets coach, Delayna Thompson said she told her athletes to calm during the timeout down because they were feeling rushed.

I just told them they had to calm down and play to their capabilities," Thompson said. They were getting anxious because [Sheldon] was getting points, and adrenalin starts up. I told them they needed to just take a breath and get back in it."

"[The team] want[ed] to win and they knew the first game was a little close, so they knew that they could, if they had more encouragement and aggression to win the game," Lady Panthers coach Lisha Lamb said.

After Hume's time out, the Hornets battled back with a 7 to 4 point run to force the Panthers to call a time out with the score 12-11.

"I think we came out and we want to be aggressive and we wanted to win," coach Lamb said, of the second game. "Then we had a few mistakes and we didn't want to work together as well as they were before."

Despite the loss, Lamb said her team gained confidence from their early lead and stretch of consecutive points.

"It helps a lot; it gives the team more enthusiasm on the court. They want to talk more. They are more excited about the game, she said.

The eventual victors closed out the game with a run of 9 points coming on kills by Megan Sutcliff and Hanna Gorda. Sheldon made a try to end the run when Emmah Fillpot shot an attempted kill towards past the net. Logan Lamb dove for the ball and dug the ball towards her teammates. The ball hit the ceiling, but was ruled still in play, the ball fell toward Alycia Daney who pushed the ball passed the outside line for Hume's 20th point.

Noah Jones/Daily Mail/ Sheldon's Logan Lamb, 24, blocks a shot hit by Megan Sutcliffe, giving the Panters a point in game two, which Hume won, 25-15.

"We did a lot better the first game than the second game. We missed a couple of serves and they hit the ball into the net -- just errors." Thompson said. "We made a lot more errors during the second game than the first game.

"[Coming back to win] shows that even when they are down, they don't give up even though they are down by 7 points at one time."

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