By Cort Reynolds
ADA - Playing their fourth home match in seven days, the Ada volleyball team lost a three-set battle to visiting Ben Logan Monday night.
The 25-18, 25-9, 27-25 loss dropped the Lady Bulldog record to 2-3, while BL improved to 2-1 with the win.
"We wasted too much time getting going," said Bulldog second-year head coach Kyleigh Tabor. "We had a slow start, but finally found our momentum in the last set."
The teams fought evenly to an 18-18 tie in set one before BL rattled off the final seven points to pull out the win, 25-18.
"We just could not get a sideout when we needed it at the end," Tabor explained.
Ada ran out to a 5-4 lead in set two behind three Megan Light kills and a Josie Poling ace. But then BL reeled off a 7-1 spurt to take control.
Other than a few errors, the Raiders continued on a 17-3 run to build a 21-8 cushion. Poling responded with a clean kill but three more BL points capped by a Lily Makin ace meant set point.
Light hammered a kill and Poling served an ace to stave off defeat temporarily. But an Ada hitting error on a tip closed it out, 25-9.
The third set was easily the best for Ada. Four straight points, followed by a Kylie Acheson kill, tied it 5-5. An Aubrey Madison ace helped Ada to a 7-5 lead.
Later, a two-hand tip at the net by Kirsten Poling upped the lead to 10-7. A call was overturned for Ada when a kill by Miranda Wills was blocked off the antenna for an 11-8 lead.
However, a 9-2 Raider run gave them a 17-13 lead. Ada rallied to knot it up 20-20 on an ace by Wills. Yet Bailey Shope, a 6-1 senior, hammered a kill to put the Raiders back on top.
Ada tied it 22-all on consecutive kills from Light. Two Bulldog errors helped make it 24-24. Then after a long rally, Kirsten Poling scored on a tip to give Ada set point.
A missed tip by Ada after another long rally tied it 25-25. A passing error gave BL set point. Shope then closed it on 3-0 run with a big sideline kill that bounced out of play off a Bulldog blocker to end it, 27-25.
"We had quite a few errors in serve receive and hitting errors, especially in the first two games," admitted Tabor. "Ben Logan had a few good players, and they played solid defense."
Junior middle Light led the Bulldogs with 10 kills, five digs and four blocks.
Junior Wills knocked down three kills and hustled up 12 digs to go with two aces. Junior Madison contributed eight digs and a pair of aces.
Quick, hustling senior libero Guagenti mustered 21 digs. setter Kirsten Poling passed out 13 assists and came up wSophomore ith 10 digs.
Senior Josie Poling dealt two aces and junior Acheson drilled four kills.
The Lady Bulldog reserves also lost, 2-0.
Ada (1-3 home, 1-0 away) visits Hardin Northern and also plays Arlington in a tri-meet Saturday morning, August 26. Arlington knocked the Bulldogs out of the district semis last fall, but HN appears to be down from its recent past.
