Colby comes up just short against ‘Jays

The Hornets traveled to Athens for another non-conference match with a Marawood foe last Thursday. While Colby picked up a win in the first set, the Bluejays went on to take the next three, claiming the match 3-1.

Big runs were aplenty in the opening set of the evening. Colby got off to a strong start, taking what appeared to be a dominant 11-3 lead. However, the Bluejays were able to work themselves back into the game, going on a 6-0 run of their own to bring themselves back within striking distance.

Coming out of a timeout, the Hornets were able to regather themselves and take back some of the points they had lost. They went on a 4-0 run of their own, capped off with a Hannah Trush ace to re-establish a six-point lead.

Athens slowly but surely worked themselves back into the set and for a moment appeared to tie the game at 19-19. An appeal on the play resulted in the point being replayed and this time, the Hornets came out on top, with Lydia Decker putting it away for Colby. They would lead the rest of the way and an ace from Harrison Schmitt gave them the 25-21 win.

After playing catch up for most of the first set, the Bluejays were the ones setting the pace in the second. The home team went on an early 9-3 run to pull away from the Hornets. With Josie Higley serving, Colby answered with four straight points to drag themselves back into the set, but Athens batted away the attempt by countering with four points of their own.

Tori Underwood delivered two aces during yet another run, bringing the Hornets within two at 18-16. Kylie Orth then came up with a key kill to cut the Bluejays’ lead down to one at 22-21, but that would be all the closer the Hornets would get, as Athens earned the sideout and then scored twice more in a row to take the 25-21 victory.

In the tiebreaking third set, the Bluejays opened up a small lead in the opening half but could not break away from Colby. In a match that had thus far been dominated by long runs by both teams, the third set was a back and forth battle.

As the set pushed towards its conclusion, Athens took an 18-14 advantage, their largest lead of the game, and looked to have finally bought themselves some breathing room. The Hornets were not done yet, however, and went on their biggest run of the set to tie the game at 19-19 following a kill from Daelyn Rieck. Unfortunately for the visitors, that would be all the closer they would get to seeing the lead in the set, as the Bluejays managed to earn the sideout on the following point and never relinquished that advantage, eventually winning 25-23.

After opening the fourth set 3-1, not much would go right for the Hornets. A stretch of 12 straight points for Athens was the defining feature of the Bluejays 25-9 win.

Decker led the team with 10 kills, Rieck ended with nine and Orth had seven and a team-high .263 hitting percentage.