HATTIESBURG – There’s no doubt nervous played a factor in the beginning of Hattiesburg’s Class II first-round matchup with Florence. Good nervous, though. The kind a player gets before his or her first-ever playoff game, as all of these Lady Tigers were doing.
Those nervous, however, lasted all of 10 minutes.
The Lady Tigers fell behind early in the first set, then never looked back once they gained the lead on their way to an easy sweep of the Lady Eagles (25-21, 25-11, 25-17).
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“They were just bouncing all over the place,” Hattiesburg coach Lauren Smith said of her team’s slow start. “They were jittery, they were nervous, there was a lot of intensity going on, a lot of cheering and fan support, so I think they were just nervous. Once they won that first set, they kind of settled down.”
Hattiesburg will host Vancleave Tuesday at 6 p.m. for a second-round contest. The winner will advance to the Class II Semifinals in Starkville next Friday.
“That was a great, great win right there,” Smith said. “In each huddle and each timeout I called, I told them, ‘We still haven’t played our game yet.’ Those three sets, we still didn’t turn up all the way to play our game. We had several points where we did play our game, but we’re not at our full potential yet.”
It was the first playoff set since 2013 and it didn’t start as planned for the Hattiesburg, but it’ll take the result any day. Florence began the match with a 7-0 run to put Hattiesburg in a hole quickly. After a timeout, Hattiesburg battled back to tie the game at 10.
The two traded the lead four times before Hattiesburg held on for good when the Lady Eagles couldn’t return the ball to give the Lady Tigers a 22-21 lead. Sophomore Kendyl Terrell finished the set with back-to-back kills to take the opening game 25-21.
Terrell ended the night with a game-high eight kills.
“Like I said last week, momentum follows her,” Smith said. “She’s very intimated and very dominant on the net. She had a good game tonight.”
The second set featured more back and forth play from the two, but Hattiesburg started to pull away when the set was tied 8-8. When junior Ty Vance stepped up to serve with that same score, Florence couldn’t get the serve back until it was 14-8. Vance had three aces and Terrell two of her three kills in the set during that stretch.
A 9-0 run pushed the Hattiesburg lead to 24-10 before the Lady Eagles allowed the 25th point on a return error.
“The second set, we came around a little bit better,” Smith said.
Florence tried to make it interesting in the third set, jumping up 5-0, but Hattiesburg scored six straight to take the lead. After the two traded a few points, Hattiesburg scored nine of 10 points to push ahead 17-10.
The Lady Eagles brought the game to within three, 20-17, but Hattiesburg scored the final five points to finish the night.
The Lady Tigers’ attack not only came from Terrell, but also Vance, junior Arei Redd and a group of others, as Vance finished the night with seven kills and Redd ended with four.
“Arei Redd stepped up, and Ty Vance over there on the outside,” Smith said. “Every time (Vance) kills the ball it goes straight down. You can almost get a sure point when Ty is going up to kill it. Madison Payne, my other killer, she wasn’t very dominant on kills tonight, but she read the defense when they were coming up to block her, and she did more of a push or a tip over those blockers.”
Serving aces played a huge role, too. Vance led the team with five and Redd and Terrell added three each.
In the first set, senior Santanna Milsap’s ace tied the at 16, then junior Taytum Terrell’s ace a couple of points later helped put her team up 20-18. In the second, Vance’s run as server pushed the lead midway through the game, then Kendyl Terrell’s three aces allowed the Lady Tigers to go on a 9-0 to extend the lead. Redd, Vance and junior Jamya Harrell all recorded serving aces in the final set.
