The Mathews High School varsity volleyball team wraps up its regular season tonight at home against King and Queen. It is Senior Night and the team will honor seniors Brittany Mitchem, Mariah Robinson and Melany Slaughter.
After adding three victories over the past week, the team is now 20-2 overall and 9-0 in Conference 42 play. Last Thursday, MHS won both matches of a doubleheader (best two of three sets) with conference opponent Carver Academy. The Lady Devils took the matches easily in straight sets both times.
After facing minimal competition over the past several weeks, Monday night’s contest at Essex proved to be the hard-fought nail-biter that Mathews needed. A large, extra-loud Essex crowd added to the intensity and challenge of the match. The Trojans came out strong to begin the match and the Lady Devils quickly found themselves down, 10-4.
MHS fought hard and managed to tie the game at 17, but would eventually lose the set, 25-22. The second set began relatively even and back and forth, the score tied at six early on. Essex rallied and worked to leads of 16-9 and 22-15 before eventually taking the set, 25-18. Now down two sets to none, the third was a win-or-go-home set for the Lady Devils.
Mathews answered, took an early lead, and maintained that lead for the remainder of the game, eventually winning 25-14. In the following set Essex regained its strength and, leading 23-14, appeared ready to send Mathews home with a 3-1 loss.
Mathews did not give up though. The Lady Devils continued to fight hard while also taking advantage of Essex miscues. MHS scored the next eight consecutive points and went on a 12-1 run to win the set, 26-24, and even the match at two sets each.
At this point, the first team to reach 15 with a two-point lead in the fifth set would be the winner. Mathews reached five points first with a 5-4 lead, and then reached 10 first with a 10-6 lead. And, although Essex fought hard and pulled to within two (12-10), Mathews also reached 15 first to win the set by a score of 15-11. It was an incredible comeback. Sharing the lead in kills with eight each were Mitchem, Robinson, Hallie Duncan and Anne Stewart. Belle Massimino led in digs with 20 followed by Robinson with 14, Josey Bauby with 13, Keely Crittenden with 12 and Madison South with 11. Duncan had four solo blocks while Stewart had two. South had 35 assists.
The Lady Devils look to carry that momentum into next week’s Conference 42 tournament. They will host the first round of the tournament (quarterfinals) on Monday night at 6 o’clock. The tournament semifinals will be held Wednesday and the finals will be held next Thursday.
JV Devils
The junior varsity team also defeated Essex Monday night. They won 2-0 in straight sets, 25-14 and 25-18. Standouts for the night included Tori Hicks with five aces, two kills and a dig, Ashley Shackelford with three kills and Shayla Wheeler with eight aces. The JV Devils face King and Queen tonight at home in their final match of the season, starting at 5:30.