Baxter’s serve too much for Lynnville-Sully volleyball

BAXTER — Baxter’s Abbie Meyer began the volleyball match against Lynnville-Sully with back-to-back aces.

It turned out to be the story of the contest as the Bolts’ serve was too much for the Hawks during a 25-23, 24-26, 24-19, 31-29 home win on Tuesday.

The Bolts used an energetic student section to get off to a fast start and then used long service runs to grab momentum in all four sets.

Baxter’s serve percentage was low (54-of-82) but the Bolts’ 19 aces highlighted the victory.

“Serving has been a high point in our practice, and we work on it every day,” Baxter volleyball co-head coach Janessa Boley said. “Our serving needs to be top notch and I feel like it carried over from practice tonight, especially Abbie Meyer. She was really good and Kelcie Shedd was very consistent, too.”

It was the first win for Baxter over Lynnville-Sully since winning in four sets back in 2016. The Bolts dropped a five-set match last season after leading two games to one and also lost five-setters in 2017 and 2018.

“They’ve always been a tough team to beat,” Meyer said. “We are really excited this year with the new coaching staff. We felt very confident coming in.”

The Hawks (0-5) struggled with Baxter’s serve in the first set. Meyer started with consecutive aces and then Julie Damman served up four straight during a 7-0 run that put the Bolts in front 10-4.

That run also began and ended with kills from Mandee Selover. Another Selover point followed by back-to-back aces from Evelyn Boothroyd extended the margin to 13-5.

The lead grew to 16-6, but L-S rallied with runs of 6-0 and 5-0 to close the deficit to 17-16.

The Hawks eventually went in front after an ace from Alaina Roberts and a kill by Natalie Roberts.

Meyer went back to work from behind the service line though. She tied the set at 20-all with another ace and then back-to-back aces pushed it to 23-20. L-S got within 23-22 and 24-23 before Baxter closed it out.

“The serve receive was not very good,” L-S head coach Kyra Smith said. “We work on it all the time and we will continue to work on it, but it was definitely the difference tonight.

“To lose that first one is always hard. It gives whichever team wins it momentum and that’s what they had tonight.”

The Hawks grabbed momentum early in the second set when they were given two free points after Baxter was penalized for a late lineup and rotation error.

Alexy Conover then pushed it to 4-0 with back-to-back aces and the lead grew to 7-0 and eventually 10-3.

The Hawks continued to spread out their lead thanks to a Natalie Roberts ace, two kills from Abby Squires and another blast from Conover.

The lead ballooned all the way to 23-14 before the Bolts (2-2) rallied with another long service run. This time, Kelcie Shedd got the Hawks consistently out of system with nifty serves and Calleah Frink did the damage at the net with three kills.

A Shedd ace got Baxter to within 24-21 and Meyer’s kill tied the set at 24-all. A service error and an Alaina Roberts ace ended the set and evened the match at 1-all.

The first 20 points of the third set produced a nearly even score. L-S went up 15-10 after a 4-0 spurt, but Meyer took over again from behind the service line.

This time, Meyer’s run covered eight straight points and five of those were aces. She also mixed in a kill during that stretch and when L-S finally broke the streak with a Squires kill, the Bolts led 18-16.

It was back-and-forth for a bit after that until Baxter ended the frame with three straight points to win 25-19.

“I try to focus so hard on my serves because it’s really the only thing in volleyball you can control,” Meyer said. “It’s so hard to control other things and serving has always been my favorite.”

The fourth set was an absolute back-and-forth marathon. And the Bolts once again rallied from an early hole.

The Hawks jumped out to an 8-4 advantage thanks in part to a kill and an ace from Aubree Arthur and an ace from Elise Alberts.

It was 11-7 L-S a few points later, but Baxter got a pair of free “rotation error” points from the Hawks to shift the momentum.

A Shedd ace got Baxter within 11-10 and then there were 16 ties the rest of the way. Frink produced an ace to give her team a 14-13 lead, a tip kill that pushed Baxter in front 20-18 and another ace to push the home team in front 24-23.

The Bolts finally won the set with back-to-back points in a very extended overtime session.

“Mental toughness was a huge key in that fourth set,” Boley said. “That’s also something that carried over from what we talked about in practice.”

Baxter co-head coach Jordynn Wesselink was proud of her team’s focus through a very grueling final set.

“I just kept telling them to stay focused,” Wesselink said. “We were down mentally in the second set so I wanted to make sure they stayed with it and continued fighting in the fourth and they were able to pull it out. The girls did a great job, and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

Alberts’ 23-assist, 13-dig double-double led the Hawks and she was 13-for-13 in serves.

Arthur had eight kills and 11 digs, Squires totaled eight kills, seven digs and two blocks and Paige James registered six kills, eight digs and five aces and she was 19-of-20 in serves.

Conover finished with five kills, four aces and 28 digs, Natalie Roberts added two kills, 16 digs and two aces and Carsyn McFarland chipped in 17 digs.

Jordan Spooner had six digs, Morgan Jones contributed four digs and the Hawks were 89-of-95 in serves with 15 aces. Natalie Roberts was 10-of-10 in serving.

Smith knows her team needs to be better in serve receive and with their overall passing, but she liked the way they hustled and thinks her squad is “getting there.”

“We need to get better passes so we can set up our hitters better. You can’t do that though if we can’t pass the ball off the serve,” Smith said. “We hustled more than I had seen in a while. We did have some good passes and we are getting there, but our serve receive has got to get better.”

Damman led the Bolts with 19 assists, two kills, six digs and four aces, Meyer added five kills, nine aces and 15 digs and Bailey Littell chipped in a team-best eight kills and two blocks.

Selover put down five kills, had two blocks and registered 11 digs, Adison Bonney collected two kills, three blocks and three digs and Shedd tallied four digs and three aces. Boothroyd served up three aces and had three digs.

Meyer and both coaching staffs agreed the crowd was one of the best each side has ever seen in this yearly matchup.

Wesselink and Meyer both felt like the energized student section lifted the Bolts in the opening set.

“It means a lot to the girls for the fans to come out and support them after a long offseason,” Wesselink said. “I think the crowd did provide them some energy early and got us going.”

Notes: L-S won in four sets back in 2020 and swept the Bolts in 2019. The 2018 five-set match produced a 15-12 fifth set and the 2017 fifth set was 15-13. Neither team won by more than three points in Baxter’s four-set win in 2016.