By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — The Lady Wave volleyball team came close to a victory, but couldn’t get the final set win. Greenville High School fell to Xenia High School in five sets on Oct. 4 at Greenville.

Head coach Michelle Hardesty said the team is still learning how to make adjustments once the opposing team figures them out. It’s a learning process that starts with playing hard better.

“I just told them, ‘We have to do hard better.’ They’re getting there, I’m proud of the fact we played a lot of five set matches this season. We have to figure out how to get over the hump when they get down,” Hardesty said.

The first set was the closest set of the match. It was another slow start for Greenville as they kept making some mistakes and couldn’t get into a rhythm.

The Lady Wave made a small run at the end, but they couldn’t overcome their earlier errors. Xenia did enough to get the 25-22 set win.

The second and third set were a different story. Greenville came out to big leads and kept them. In the second set, the Lady Wave never trailed.

The serving game was better during those two sets. The offense started to find their footing and they were able to hit their spots.

Greenville won the second set 25-15 and the third set 25-16. It seemed like momentum was on Greenville’s side.

Then Xenia struck back. The Lady Buccs came out strong and started to get past Greenville’s front line.

The Lady Wave also started to make mistakes similar to the ones they made in the first set. The serving game wasn’t as strong as it was in the previous two sets.

Xenia took control of the momentum and rode it to two straight set wins. They won the fourth set 25-17 and the fifth set 15-11.

Hardesty said the team played great in the second and third set, but just couldn’t do enough to get one more set win. She does view these five set matches as a good thing for her team.

“I take it as a positive going into the tournament. I take it as a positive going forward, looking into our future. I hope those five set matches turn into three set wins in the coming years,” said Hardesty.

The Lady Wave are now 7-12 on the season with a 6-9 conference record. After a road match against Piqua, they will host West Carrollton on Oct. 11 and travel to Sidney on Oct. 13 to finish out the regular season.

Hardesty said with a lot of the girls on the team coming from the eight grade team or the freshman team to varsity this year, the team’s improvement this season has been outstanding.

“Just from where we started to where we’re finishing, we’re competing in five set matches and even winning some sets fairly big. The growth is amazing to me. It’s exciting for the girls,” Hardesty said.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]