By CALEB SWALLOWS
SEMO News Service
Sports Writer
Struggling to pull ahead in Aug. 31's match, the Puxico Lady Indians pulled ahead late to beat Richland in a three-set thriller 25-22, 24-26, 25-14.
Both teams seemed to be off their game in the early going, giving each other their first two points each until Puxico's Faith Oliver produced a hard spike to give the Indians a 3-2 lead. Richland's Megan Cullum then responded with a kill to tie it.
The Rebels pushed further, extending their lead to 5-3, but two consecutive kills from Oliver allowed the Indians to come back and tie the game.
The Rebels and the Indians continued to go back and forth with errors keeping the game tied at 7-7. Oliver then served up an ace, giving the Indians the lead. Puxico's Sophia Hancock followed it up with a devastating kill, assisted by Kylie Miller, that resulted in the Rebels' first timeout.
"It's an amazing feeling whenever I get a good kill," Hancock said. "To see my teammates get hyped about it really gets me excited."
The Indians started to fumble and ended up giving the Rebels three consecutive points because of errors to pull within one point. Puxico head coach Hannah Wight then called a much needed timeout to rally the team.
The Indians still continued to drag, allowing the Rebels to catch up and tie them game, 14-14. Both teams then fell into this rotation of going back and forth until the Rebels pulled ahead 21-17, pushing the Indians into a second timeout.
The timeout was effective. After an error by the Rebels and two consecutive kills from Oliver, assisted by Miller, the Indians closed the gap, trailing 21-20, and pushed the Rebels into a timeout.
Richland finally regrouped, and after an ace from Puxico's Katlyn Brotherton, took the first set 25-22.
Richland resisted any attacks the Indians made to open the second set. Richland's Chloe Holman gave the Rebels their 4-1 lead on a block by Oliver.
The Indians continuously attempted to close the gap, but the Rebels resisted all efforts maintained their lead. Once the Indians start pulled within 10-7, Richland's Harlie Leeper launched a hard kill, pushing the Indians back down.
They didn't stay down long, however, as Oliver roped in two consecutive kills, assisted by Miller, before Puxico's Lea Shepar produced two aces, tying the game at 15.
The Rebels took a 19-17 before both Hancock and Oliver brought in three straight kills, pushing the Indians ahead 20-19 for good. Oliver came up with a dig three points later, Hancock set it and Shepard jumped in to give the kill, pushing the Indians ahead 22-20.
The Indian momentum then vanished. Consecutive errors from the Indians allowed the Rebels to take the second set 26-24.
The Indians brought the fire and started off the decisive third set with a 5-0 lead after two kills from Hancock and Shepard, two aces by Hancock and a reception error from the Rebels.
The Rebels scored a total of two points over the next seven points, but the Indians were relentless, continuing to widen the gap 10-2 and forcing a Richland timeout.
Cullum started the game back up with a kill, assisted by Richland's Sam Clark. A kill by Puxico's Alivia Taylor, three aces by Miller and three consecutive kills by Hancock gave the Indians a 20-10 advantage.
Oliver had three more kills to finish off the set 25-14.
"I feel like we started off slow at first," Oliver said. "When the junior varsity and fans started cheering us on, it brought our motivation up and we finished strong in the end."
The junior varsity teams also played Thursday night, but only had time for one set. Richland won 25-20.