Sports
Ace Nation: The Bulldogs maintain their streak of success with a sweep against River Valley
By: Carly Traut
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ATHENS, Ohio (WOUB) – The Athens Bulldogs came out on top against the River Valley Raiders on Thursday night. Sweeping the Raiders 3 to nothing.
The Bulldogs began the first set confidently with a consistent serve from Senior Captain Alexa Reed, putting them up 9 to 2, forcing the Raiders to call their first timeout. The two teams consistently rallied back and forth the rest of the set with multiple kills from Athens’ Sophomore Mabel Monday and River Valley’s Emma Somerville. Both teams struggled with errors, but Athens Senior Caitlyn Hayes cleaned it up and ended the first set with an ace, 25 to 14.
The second set began with both teams trading points back and forth. Athens slowly started inching their way further into the lead, forcing River Valley to call two timeouts. However, this motivated the Bulldogs to keep up their fight with more kills from both Monday and Junior Liza Hartman. To top it off, Sophomore Grace Inboden and Reed had two aces a piece to set the second. Athens finished the second set 25 to 11.
Athens’ Inboden came out hot to start the third set with three aces and was solid behind the service line, going on a 7-point run. River Valley took another timeout and when they returned to the court Senior Madison Jones came out with a strong ace. This then inspired two nice kills from her teammates, which they were grasping at the hope for a Raiders comeback. These efforts were not enough however with the dominance of Hayes and Sophomore Middle, Ava Meili, killing it at the net.
The Bulldogs had a rocky service game earlier this week. “We have really been watching our serves lately.” Hayes mentioned, “We wanted to come back today and be stronger and more consistent at the serving line.”
This improvement was seen throughout the entire game and with Inboden closing it out with two more aces, leading them to victory 25 to 9.
To continue this winning streak Coach Hailee Hart says, “We want to run a much faster offense and know that some of our upcoming opponents have really big blocks.” Hart shares. “So, we are really focusing on the cover game, recycling those balls, and returning them.”
Athens will be back on Saturday to host Gallia Academy and River Valley hosts Federal Hocking on Monday.