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Clearfield falls to St. Marys
Wednesday, October 07, 2009
By Jon Christoff Sports Writer
HYDE - St. Marys' Kayla Hoohuli is mostly known for her jumpshot on the basketball court, but on Tuesday it was her jump serve that gave the Clearfield volleyball team fits during a crucial stretch in the second set with the score tied at 12.
The Lady Bisons battled back from a sizeable deficit only to fall short in the opening game. The momentum Clearfield got from playing so well carried over into the second, when Hoohuli served six straight points to give the Lady Dutch the edge they needed.
Despite Hoohuli's serving and play at the net, the Lady Bisons turned in a solid performance in a 25-20, 25-19 and 25-20 loss.
"We definitely have positives to take from this," said Clearfield head coach Bob Peters.
"We played better in some aspects ... we'll just have to see if we've improved enough to pick up some wins in the next couple of matches."
Five of Hoohuli's points came from Clearfield mistakes, as St. Marys got on a bit of a roll and led 21-13 before the Lady Bisons scrapped back into it.
Ana Dungan had three service points for Clearfield to put the score at 23-19, before a serve hit the net and the Lady Dutch closed out the set with an ace.
Serving proved to be an Achilles' heel on both sides for most of the evening, as the Lady Bisons faltered 13 times and the Lady Dutch 14.
"Our serving was horrendous tonight," Peters said. "If we served like we normally do, then we might have won a set or two tonight. It was definitely the difference in the last game."
Despite miscues later in the set, the serving of Cortney Woodel staked Clearfield out to a 4-0 lead before St. Marys knew what hit it.
Woodel had three aces in the run before her fifth serve was wide of the mark, but the Lady Bisons didn't allow the Lady Dutch to get on track.
Clearfield held an 11-5 advantage before another lengthy service run brought St. Marys back into the thick of things.
The Lady Dutch's Karisa Krieg bested Hoohuli's run from the second set by one to tie the match, and the Lady Bisons were unable to recover, despite holding the edge.
After Woodel's four points to open the set, Clearfield managed just five service points the rest of the match.
"We were up big and ended up losing it," said Peters. "When you get a lead that big, you have to get that killer instinct to put the other team away."
St. Marys played a similar set to Clearfield's in the first of the night, as it jumped out to an early lead but was able to hang on.
The Lady Dutch led 18-10 before erring on a serve, and Clearfield was able to battle back into things with a strong defensive effort from Kelsey Glace and Samantha Broad.
Glace had three kills and three digs in the set to go along with a pair of service points, while Broad contributed two of her six digs in the match.
Despite the play of Glace and Broad in the first, St. Marys picked up the win when the last point was scored on a miscommunication on the Lady Bisons' side of the net.
Glace finished the game with eight digs to go along with her kills, while Woodel and Broad led the serving effort with six and five points, respectively.
"Kelsey had a good game tonight, offensively and defensively," Peters said. "I thought Cortney Woodel had a strong performance, and got us going pretty good with a service run in the third. Brittany Martell also served well with some aces.
"We could've blocked a little bit better tonight, I thought. We'll continue to work on that and see what happens. ... We played better tonight than we have in the past, though."
Clearfield (0-11) hosts Punxsutawney on Thursday.
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