CALEDONIA — Caledonia libero Emma McKee was getting ready to serve as the Cavaliers led Itawamba Agricultural 23-20 in the third set of Tuesday night’s match.
As she threw the ball up, she seemingly tripped over herself but never touched the ball as it landed in front of her.
The Caledonia starters and bench tried to hold back laughs and smiles as McKee returned back to the service line.
Just seconds later, she served an ace down the right baseline.
It was one of many in the match for McKee as the Cavs ended the third set and match on a 7-0 run, sweeping Itawamba in their first district match, 3-0. Set scores were 25-17, 25-16 and 25-20.
“I think communication was really good,” McKee said. “We were just playing really good as a team, and we were hustling.”
It wasn’t just the end of the third set that saw McKee impress from the service line. To start the second set, Caledonia (7-3, 1-0 district) went on a 12-1 run, nearly all of that off the service run of McKee.
Itawamba struggled to find any sort of rhythm, especially at the beginning of that second set, and the Cavaliers were quick to take advantage.
“We are in the high 80s and low 90s as far as our serving percent,” Caledonia head coach Samantha Brooks said. “We are an effective serving team. One thing that I mentioned to them when Emma had that good serving string was that they were not able to run an offense, and that was really important for us.”
When Itawamba was able to keep a rally going, the Caledonia attack was performing at a high caliber of play on Tuesday, starting with outside hitter Brianna Holliman.
The service game led to great communication overall, which benefitted Holliman greatly as she and McKee talked the entire match, with McKee guiding her on where to hit and try to land her shots.
“Their block wasn’t really up there,” Holliman said. “I could see around it, and I had Emma talking to me the entire time telling me what she saw, and I could get up there to see it. My sets were really good, too.”
One play in particular sticks out toward the end of the second set as Itawamba was mounting somewhat of a comeback, down 23-15 at that point after such a large deficit early on.
Itawamba libero Kate Stevens saved a ball that bounced around in the rafters of Caledonia’s gym, able to get just enough on it from the back service line to bump it over the net.
However, that point still ended in Caledonia’s favor as Holliman got a great set from senior Emily Clark, landing a perfectly placed kill down the left baseline to essentially seal the set after that.
All credit goes back to those behind her, letting her know what to expect as she rises above the net for a kill attempt.
“For me, it’s really good to hear if I have one or two blockers,” Holliman said. “It helps me score more if that makes any sense. It helps me see the court without actually seeing it.”
After a 6-3 start to the season against non-district opponents, Caledonia got its district schedule off on the right foot with its third consecutive win overall.
With a tough list of district opponents ahead, Tuesday’s win was exactly what the Cavaliers needed to jumpstart the rest of the season.
“We’re going to be really confident throughout the season,” McKee said. “This first win gives us more momentum into our next district games.”
Caledonia has to wait until Sept. 6 for its next district game against Pontotoc, but the Cavaliers will travel Thursday to play at New Albany, a team they’ve already defeated in a five-set thriller on Aug. 16.
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