SOUTH WHITLEY – Monday’s volleyball match against visiting Columbia City started off well enough for Whitko, with three straight emphatic kills from senior Kaity Reed. But the Lady Wildcats were inconsistent at best, and had a hand in their own demise. The Lady Eagles came back from a set down to beat Whitko 27-25, 18-25, 18-25, 25-20, 15-12. In spite of a firepower disadvantage, Columbia City quickly showed it was going to give Whitko a quality effort, rebounding to tie the first set at four. After 13 ties, the Lady Eagles took the last two points to win the first set. Whitko led wire-to-wire in the second set, and trailed briefly before taking the third set. The Lady Eagles rattled off seven straight points to take control of the fourth set, then held its serve just enough to take the fifth and deciding game. Several Lady Wildcat rallies were cut down by service errors, mostly into the net, and Whitko was out-volleyed on several long rallies. The situation left Whitko head coach Mike Howard upset with his team. “It’s impossible to win when your outside hitters make 25 hitting errors between the two of them. It’s that simple,” he said. “We’re weren’t being clean and efficient with the ball; it was error after error after error. Either an IQ error; not understanding and being afraid to make a play in system, or not being aware of what the system is, or simply making an error at the end line. “In the first set we had 18 unforced errors, and we just continue that trend. We cleaned that up a little bit, but when we had to have a play, we can’t make a play at the service line with some of our players right now. And we can’t make a play at the net. “It’s unfortunate because some kids play well, but things have to change on this team, and things will change (today). It may not be for the better, but at this point things have to change because clearly the players are not changing. They continue to make the same errors, they continue to make the same mistakes, and it’s frustrating at this point.” Reed had 25 kills and a pair of blocks in the match. Reed’s classmate, senior Haley Yohe, had 55 assists. Kristina Slater and Haley Howard tied for the team lead with two aces each. Coach Howard and the Lady Wildcats, now 16-8 for the year, don’t have long to make adjustments. They host Maconaquah in a Three?Rivers Conference match today.
COLUMBIA CITY 3, WHITKO 2 CC 27 18 18 25 15 W 25 25 25 20 12 Whitko (leaders): Assists – Haley Yohe 55; Aces – Kristina Slater 2, Haley Howard 2; Blocks – Kaity Reed 2; Digs – Slater 30; Kills – Reed 25 JV – Columbia City def. Whitko 25-15, 25-7
