​Eagles volleyball starts off strong, but falls against Truman

by Michael Smith
 
The Grain Valley volleyball team started out hot.

The Eagles were locked in a tight battle at the beginning of their match with Suburban White Conference rival Truman on the road.

After a back-and-forth battle, Grain Valley won the first set. However, Truman stormed back thanks to the Eagles’ struggles receiving serves and the senior strong duo combination of Jayden Herl and Avery Patton at the net as Grain Valley fell 25-21, 21-25, 16-25, 15-25 loss Tuesday.

Neither team led by more than 2 points in the first set leading up to a 20-all tie after a hit out of bounds from Truman gave the Eagles a side out. Then a kill and a block from senior Kayla Gallagher, who had a team-high 12 kills, led to a 6-1 run to and a first-game win.

The Eagles (1-1, 0-1 White Conference) carried that momentum into the second set and had its biggest lead at 16-11 after sophomore Piper Jackson got a kill from the middle following a near 2-minute long rally.

The Patriots took over and never looked back from there. They ended the set on a 14-5 run behind a trio of kills from Patton that gave the home team the second game.

“We came out on fire and ready to play. We listened. We knew some of Truman’s weaknesses and we tried to expose those,” Grain Valley head coach Tori Squiers said. We just have to learn to continue to win sets.”

Things did not start off well in the third set as Truman got off to a 5-0 start thanks to three aces and struggles returning serves from Grain Valley. The Eagles battled back to tie the game at 5-all, which was spearheaded by two kills from Gallagher. Grain Valley later took a 12-11 lead following a Truman block that went out of bounds but three kills from freshman Andi Gardner helped Truman end the game with a 13-5 spurt to put Truman ahead 2 sets to 1.

Grain Valley trailed the entire fourth set after falling behind 5-0 once again. Gallagher had three kills, while junior Chesnie King had two, but it wasn’t enough.

Squiers said her team is young and is working on building chemistry with just two seniors on the team. King is playing as a setter for the first time in her career and is working on gelling with her hitters.

“We are still trying to work out some kinks and with that, there are errors that are bound to happen,” Squiers said. “(Herl) really hurt us. She’s a strong hitter who made us work defensively.
“We have a strong offensive team. We just have to make sure we are utilizing everyone. Chesnie is setting for the first time and the connection with the hitters is a little off. She is building that knowledge of being a setter. But she’s stepped in and she’s rocked it.”
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