The Caledonia High School volleyball team couldn’t help but get caught up in another night of firsts for its cross-county rival New Hope High.
On an evening in which New Hope High celebrated its first home match in its first season with a volleyball program, Caledonia marked the occasion by coming up with a new nickname.
Caledonia coach Samantha Brooks and junior setter Morgan Smith hope Tuesday night is the last time they see the bad side of “Team Extreme.”
Despite playing to extreme highs and lows, Caledonia held on for a 3-1 victory. Set scores were 25-19, 25-18, 27-29, 25-20.
Brooks acknowledged part of her team’s struggles were due to the fact it played without senior middle blocker Sarah Freeman, a team leader and one of the loudest players on the squad. Still, Brooks said Caledonia’s effort in no way resembled its performance Thursday in a 3-0 victory against Ackerman in which she said the team played with energy and electricity.
“At one point, I told them I can only tell you so much. I am saying the same things over and over,” Brooks said. “I know they want it. When they get themselves in those situations, they have to pull themselves out. Missing a serve on game point is not going to cut it.”
New Hope (1-5) rallied to tie the match at 24-all thanks to a missed kill. But a kill by Elisha Collins (13 kills) gave Caledonia (13-2) match point, only to see the Lady Confederates miss two serves that could have helped them close the match. The Lady Trojans capitalized, using a scramble play and a hit by Mercedes Mattix after the ball hit the rafters to take a 27-26 lead. A tip by Smith re-tied the match, but a bad pass by Caledonia and an ace by Abby Wilson set New Hope off on a celebration.
“After those (first) two games I just told them you’re this close. You’re giving enough effort to stay with them, it is this much more effort to beat them, and this last game you have got to find that,” New Hope coach Laura Lee Holman said. “They found that extra effort to come up with a win. To come from behind like that shows a lot of composure. I think it is great.”
New Hope looked like it would stretch the match to a fifth set, as it built leads of 14-10 and 16-13. The match was tied four times down the stretch before a kill by Kacy Lovett broke the tie for good. Two aces by Collins helped seal the deal.
Afterward, Smith was puzzled by her team’s roller coaster play. She said the Lady Confederates have to find a way not to allow the struggles of one player to get the entire team down.
“We played like we were a brand new team and we haven’t been playing for years,” Smith said. “We were missing passes, we were bombing our hits at the net, we weren’t lining up on the blocks. We played like crap.”
Smith said the valleys the team suffers through are frustrating because she knows the team can play so well. Last week, Starkville swept Caledonia on a night in which it didn’t play to its potential. The next match, Caledonia rebounded to beat Ackerman. Smith said four days without practice contributed to the lackluster performance, but she said the squad needs to find what works and put it into action consistently.
Brooks agrees, which is why she coined the nickname on the bench at the tail end of the match. The veteran coach tends to let her players figure things out on the court rather than storming the sidelines and elevating the temperature. She said the Lady Confederates have to play smart — and not try to wear a hole through the net by trying to hit into it — and to play their game.
“We are now ‘Team Extreme,’ ” Brooks said. “We are extremely cold r extremely warm. Until something changes, we are knows as ‘Team Extreme.’ It is nothing in between.”
Holman hasn’t had to work through as many extremes, in part because she is starting from scratch. She said she has seen tremendous growth from a bunch of players who are giving great effort. She said the next step is to work on the fundamentals so they can capitalize on their hard work.
“I have a great group of girls,” Holman said. “Their effort has been there every night. Now it is just developing their skills, knowledge, and anticipation and reading the game and reading the defense. We’re not watching as much. I am so proud of their effort Caledonia is a great program. I think tonight was our first big step for Lady Trojan volleyball. They should be proud of what they did tonight.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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