GREENVILLE – Greenville earned its second win in the past three matches on Tuesday as the Lady Wave swept Xenia 25-16, 25-11, 25-18 in a Greater Western Ohio Conference showdown.
With the win Greenville improved to 2-8 overall and 2-6 in the GWOC. After starting the season 0-7 the Lady Wave recorded a win against Trotwood-Madison in straight sets last week before falling to Vandalia-Butler on Monday and then beating Xenia on Tuesday.
“I think they played excellent volleyball tonight,” Greenville coach Chelsea Dowd said of her team’s performance against Xenia. “They were very confident on the floor. We played as a team, which was really nice to see. They did a really good job.”
The match started off with Greenville and Xenia seeming to be evenly matched. But from a 10-10 tie the Lady Wave went on a 6-0 run to take a lead they held the rest of the opening set on their way to a 25-16 victory.
The momentum continued for Greenville in the second set as the Lady Wave began the game on an 8-2 run. The Wave led by as many as 15 points in the set and were in complete control all the way to a 25-11 win to go up two sets to none in the best-of-five match.
“Each game we earned more than 13 points, and that’s how you stay in control of the game,” Dowd said. “It’s nice when the other team gives you some free points when they make errors, but when you earn a point and then the team gets excited because we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, that’s when the momentum stays on our side, and that’s how it went for most of the night.”
Greenville continued to roll in the early stages of the third set, opening up a 9-2 lead. Xenia didn’t back down and managed to reduce its deficit to a couple points at 10-8. However, Greenville never surrendered the lead and won 25-18 to sweep the match.
“I told the girls today before this game we’re going to start looking at each game as its own little mini-season. So tonight we went 1-0 for the day, and that’s a good feeling for us. I think we’re going to start to play in some games where we’re really going to be competitive, especially as we build a little bit of confidence. And the nice thing is a lot of the teams that we were very competitive with at the beginning of the season we’re going to see again towards the end at home, and we’re going to continue to get better.”
Greenville is now off until Monday when the Lady Wave will travel to Tippecanoe for another GWOC match. Their next home contest is Sept. 28 against Troy.
