PURVIS – As Purvis eyed a sweep over West Lauderdale in the Class 4A quarterfinals, the Tornados trailed in the third set 23-19.
Yet sure enough, as Purvis had done all night, the Tornados kept their composure and closed out the game with a 6-0 run to defeat West Lauderdale 25-14, 25-18, 25-23, and advance to the South State championship.
However, Purvis coach Kaitlyn Aycock had admitted that the biggest worry heading into the game was her team’s mental toughness.
“My biggest stress has been their mental effort,” Aycock said. “Will they be able to keep it up if they make mistakes? Will they be able to keep it up if the other team is scoring?
“We hoped to kind of play on the emotional side of it and keep our confidence up and not (West Lauderdale) break us down and then hope we could kind of break them up.”
Aycock called a timeout before the run ignited, and her message was a simple or mental challenge– to play the final moment like a winner-take-all fifth set.
“We started making some errors, and we started getting in our head with a few passing errors,” Aycock said. “We quickly turned it around. I told them to play that like it was the fifth set and like it was the end of the game. It’s easy to get complacent and think we’ve got it no matter what. I wanted them to play that like it was the fifth set (and) they adjusted.”
While the final 6-0 run was the most significant illustration of her team’s mental preparation, it was easily the deciding factor in the Tornados’ win over West Lauderdale as Purvis capitalized on the Knights’ mistake and strung together numerous runs.
But what makes the program’s maturity even more remarkable is the fact that the program is just four years old. In fact, the seniors on this year’s Purvis team were freshmen on the first-ever Tornados’ squad.
“Sixty-five girls show up to try out,” said Aycock, recollecting on putting the school’s first team together. “You don’t know all their names, but you look for athletes. That’s all we could hope for, which was hoping we could find the most athletic people. We did that with the freshmen we found, who are the seniors today. They have transformed, and now we are to the point where at tryouts, girls look more like volleyball players. Girls are getting into club and are deciding to play year-round. It’s been a huge difference.
“It has been a rollercoaster ride. These seniors this year were the freshman of the first year. They have worked so hard. They are bought in. They went from athletes to a volleyball team. That’s been the biggest change. This year we are a volleyball team.”
The opening set saw Purvis go on two 5-0 runs and a 4-0 run, but the most critical run came after West Lauderdale scored five straight points to cut the Tornados’ lead to 13-11. Purvis responded with a 4-0 run and pulled together a 10-2 to win 25-14.
The second set saw four ties and two lead changes before Purvis took hold of a 13-11 lead, but again the Tornados pulled away with an 8-0 run to win 25-18.
In the final set, Purvis looked to be on cruise control as the Tornados held on to a 19-15 lead, but West Lauderdale surged ahead with an 8-0 run, which set up the game’s final run.
Caragan Kleinke led the teams with six kills and 12 digs. Shannon Perryman total four kills while Clara Lott had 10 digs.
Purvis will now go on the road to face Pass Christian in South State on Monday.
