GREENVILLE – Lady Wave Captain, Abbie Yoder set a new Greenville volleyball record in the team’s Monday night MVL win over the visiting Sidney Lady Yellow Jackets in straight sets.
The teams opened set No. 1 with ties at 6-6, 9-9, 10-10 as the Lady Wave struggled at the serve line before GHS moved out to a 19-13 advantage bringing a timeout from the Sidney bench.
“We struggled early,” Greenville coach Michelle Hardesty. “We struggled with serve receive early but coming off a weekend – we got just a few days of school under our belts so they are still trying to figure out how to balance life with academics and athletics.”
The Lady Wave took game one 25-21 with an Abbie Yoder kill scoreing the final point for the local girls.
Set No. 2 had the Lady Wave taking an early 3-1 lead only to once again struggle at the serving line and quickly trail the Lady Jackets 9-5 with Greenville calling for a timeout.
“You are going to lose some points just by being aggressive serving,” explained assistant coach Jim Hardesty. “Tonight some of the serving was trying to serve into certain zones that we knew they were weaker in and it just didn’t work out.”
The Lady Wave battled back to knot the score at 9-9 and 10-10 before taking a 14-10 advantage with Sidney taking a timeout. Sidney followed with 4-unanswered points to even the set at 14-14 only to have the Greenville use a 7-2 run to lead 22-16 on its way to a second game 25-21 win.
The Lady Wave looked like a 7-3 winning team in the final set hitting on all cylinders including the serving line to jump out to a 9-0 lead with junior Captain, Libby McKinney at the serving line. The Greenville girls pushed its lead to 20-6 on their way to a 25-10 sweep of the Lady Yellow Jackets.
“Right now I am pleased with where we are at,” said Jim Hardesty. “We finally got our lineup to where we want it tonight. This is kind of where we are going to be for the rest of the year – that is what it is going to look like.”
The game was stopped momentarily to acknowledge Greenville senior, Abbie Yoder establishing a new school volleyball record with a solo block in the opening set to earn the title of Greenville High School’s career block leader, breaking the previous mark of 191 career blocks.
“Abbie broke the career block record for Greenville High School,” said Coach Hardesty following the win. “She tied it the last match at West Carrollton. She did not know she was that close so it was a surprise to her. I guess she was just saving it for a home match. We are very proud of her.”
“We just kept after them tonight to get better,” Coach Michelle Hardesty concluded, “and they did.”
