ConVal made two huge comebacks in their homecoming volleyball game against John Stark Thursday, but the effort exerted in the first two sets left them unable to complete the deal as the visiting Generals won three straight to spoil the Cougars’ evening.
“I think we lost adrenaline,” ConVal coach Amanda Hinton said. “We gave it everything we had in the first two to come back, down by five points both times…you could tell we were drained by the fourth and fifth.”
ConVal fell behind 19-14 in the first and second sets, but with the raucous homecoming crowd stomping and cheering them on, they came back to win both, 25-23 and 25-22. Six-foot freshman middle hitter Ivy Armstrong-McEvoy (six kills, five blocks) and junior captain Emma Rodenhiser (13 kills, three aces, nine digs, two blocks) led the comeback efforts with their dynamic net play.
“[Armstrong-McEvoy] is young,” Hinton said, “and learning, and she’s doing really, really well for us…[Rodenhiser] is amazing. When she’s on, she leads our team pretty powerfully.”
With those two at the net and senior Aria Laurent (nine assists, two kills, six aces) serving well, the ConVal offense was looking good. Their defense, however, left something to be desired, as the Cougars’ serve-receive game – already in need of some repair – abandoned them at the end of the third set and never fully returned, the Generals reeling off point after point while barely breaking a sweat.
“It’s a momentum-killer for sure when you can’t serve-receive,” Hinton said, “and we definitely struggled a bit today.”
Despite the best efforts of senior captain Kendall Sullivan (three kills, 10 assists) and senior libero Sam Henderson (17 digs, 23 successful serve receives), John Stark ran away with the final three sets, 25-15, 25-13 and 15-9.
Coach Hinton said she was pleased with her team’s effort but that going forward, they need to exert control over the aspects of the game within their power.
“My takeaway is that we did not give up,” Hinton said. “We fought really hard. We played very reactive instead of proactive, and we did not attack the ball the way we have the ability to attack the ball. We were reacting to their hits and trying to play their hits instead of attacking with our game. And so when we do that, we’ll be good. And when we don’t do that, we’ll struggle, like we did tonight.”
ConVal (2-2) hosts Pelham on Monday.