NEW HOPE — Midway through the fourth set of Thursday’s home match against Oxford, the New Hope High School volleyball team switched to a different rotation.
With playoffs coming up in less than two weeks, the Trojans have been trying different things, hoping to see what might work best.
This particular change, though, didn’t work out.
“That didn’t really go well, so we just decided to not do that anymore,” New Hope coach Allison Woolbright said.
Even in an eventual five-set loss to Oxford, the Trojans could afford to tinker.
New Hope lost Thursday for only the second time in the regular season, losing a 2-0 lead as the Chargers stormed back to claim the road win. Set scores were 20-25, 18-25, 25-19, 27-25 and 15-10.
“It wasn’t a bad game at all,” junior Annie Woolbright said. “I’m not upset that we lost. I think we played great.”
New Hope has already earned the No. 1 seed in MHSAA Class 5A, Region 2, putting the Trojans in line for a first-round bye and an Oct. 11 home date in the second round.
The home team continued its torrid pace by winning the first two sets Thursday. Oxford took a 4-3 lead in the first set; it was the last Chargers advantage until early in the third. New Hope was far from perfect, but the Trojans posted comfortable wins in both sets.
Then things started to fall apart.
Errors increased. Missed serves began to pile up. Oxford won eight points in a row to take a 13-7 lead in the third set.
New Hope battled back to tie the set 14-all, and the two teams traded points all the way to 19-19, but the Chargers pulled away with six straight points to force a fourth set.
“I still wasn’t really worried about it at that point,” Allison Woolbright said. “I tried to just tell the girls, ‘Remain calm. We’ve got two more sets, so there’s no need to get in any kind of rush or anything like that.’”
But Oxford wouldn’t be denied. Given life along with its first set win of the night, the Chargers got out to an 18-13 lead in the fourth set.
New Hope again fought back to tie things up 24-all, but Oxford had the final say. The visitors landed a perfect shot inside the sideline to go up 26-25 then found open space in the back right corner of the court to win on set point.
Tied at two sets apiece, the Trojans and Chargers found themselves knotted at 9-9 in the decisive set. Oxford appeared to go up two points from there, but an incorrect rotation forced the points to be replayed.
It didn’t matter. The Chargers took advantage of New Hope errors, such a key miscommunication after senior Kensley Woolbright set up a perfect ball for somebody but no one claimed it and it fell to the hardwood. On the next play, a miss by junior Megan Neeb gave Oxford a three-point lead.
The Chargers won three of the final four points, claiming the match.
Allison Woolbright pointed back to the third set as a definite momentum-changer.
“We kind of got down in that third set when we got beat, and then it was just hard to come back from that mentally,” she said. “I thought we played well and we tried to adjust, but we just didn’t do what we needed to do.”
Annie Woolbright acknowledged New Hope should have played better in the third and fourth sets.
But neither she nor her mother and coach could find much fault in a closely contested loss to a tough MHSAA Class 6A program.
“We’ve been playing really well,” Allison Woolbright said. “They’re a really good team. Playing good teams like that makes us better. Going five sets makes us better because it points out to us where we’re weak and what we need to improve in. Getting down and having to go to five sets, it’s hard to come back from that.”
New Hope will take on the winner of an Oct. 8 match between the runner-up in Region 3-5A and the third-place team in Region 1-5A. Region 3 contains Greenville, Cleveland Central and Holmes County Central; Region 1 is composed of Lake Cormorant, Lafayette and Saltillo.
Coach Woolbright said she won’t worry too much about the Trojans’ matchup until it’s decided.
“I’ve kind of looked at it, but on any given day, anybody could win, so you just don’t know who it’ll be,” she said.
Other scores
Prep volleyball
Tupelo 3, Starkville 1
STARKVILLE — Starkville High School lost a four-set match to Tupelo at home Thursday.
Set scores were 25-20, 25-21, 21-25 and 25-14.
The Yellow Jackets fell to 10-15 on the season.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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