Eagles struggle on defense in three-set loss to Ray-Pec

​by Michael Smith


Fatigue may have set in for the Grain Valley volleyball team.

The Eagles played their eighth game in four days as they took on Raymore-Peculiar Tuesday at home. On Monday, they played St. Michael The Archangel Catholic. Two days before that, the Eagles competed in six games during the Winnetonka Invitational Saturday.

Grain Valley was competitive with the Panthers in the first, but the second and third sets got away from the Eagles as they fell 26-28, 16-25, 17-25.

The Eagles had trouble getting past the defense of the Panthers as players like Abigail Ogren, Isabel Bowen and Addison Findley had several blocks that prevented Grain Valley from getting spike to land on the other side of the net.

The defense for Grain Valley was also not to the liking of head coach Tori Squiers, who said her team had an “off night.”

“Where we hurt a lot tonight was defensively,” Squiers said. “They got to play a lot of offense on us. It was hard to come back from that.

“It was an off night for a lot of girls. Some of our strong defensive players like Isabella West and Haylie Jennings didn’t maybe have their strongest game today. They came off a big weekend where they won the Winnetonka Tournament.”

Grain Valley trailed 23-21 late in the first set but came back to tie it at 25-all after going on a 4-2 run capped by a kill from  junior Kayla Gallagher. However, the Panthers got back-to-back kills from senior Kayla Starkey to end a 3-1 run and help her team take the first set by two points.

The Eagles took an early 5-3 lead in the second set following a kill from Gallagher, but Ray-Pec took over from there and outscored the Eagles 22-14 the rest of the way. Grain Valley struggled to connect on passes, while Ray-Pec continued to put up a big block at the net and Bowen powered the Panthers offense with five kills and an ace.

The home team also led 8-7 early in the third thanks to a kill from senior Isabella West, but Ray-Pec took the lead and slowly pulled away due to strong play at the net and unforced errors from Grain Valley.

“We have had a lot of tough competition this season,” Squiers said. “Hopefully we can turn things around after a long weekend.

“After the game we talked about chipping away and not giving up. We got ourselves in tough situations in each set and got down five to six points. We just need to be unified and connected as a team.”

Gallagher led the Eagles with 11 kills, senior Megan Davies had seven and Kyleigh Casey had five. Davies also had a team-high four blocks.

The Grain Valley volleyball team breaks down the huddle during a 26-28, 16-25, 17-25 loss to Raymore-Peculiar Tuesday at home. Photo credit: Michael Smith