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By Jed Blackwell

 

Polk County’s 3-0 win over Hendersonville might look one-sided on the scoreboard.

The games, however, were tight, and Wolverines coach Molly Hill said her team could take a lot of pride from Tuesday’s 25-22, 25-12, 25-23 victory over the Bearcats. 

The third game, in particular, was a source of pride for Hill. After a dominant game two win, the Wolverines found themselves down 20-13 before mounting a furious comeback. Behind Mia Bradley, Morgan Yoder and Kylie Lewis, Polk County crept back into the game to avoid going to a fourth.

They scored four straight points, punctuated by Lewis’ kill, to make it 20-17. Polk gave up a point but got it back to 21-19. Two straight Hendersonville points made it precarious at 23-19, but the Wolverines stopped it there, scoring the game’s final six points to take the win.

“We were down, and I ended up calling both my timeouts there during that stretch,”Hill said. “We needed to reset. We were stuck in serve-receive for too long. Our passes was a little off, which was causing our setting to be out-of-whack, and our hitters were put in difficult positions.

“We just needed to reset a little bit. But that’s what we’re good at. We’re good at the dogfight. We’re good at the comeback. I was confident in them, and I’ve used the line before, 25 wasn’t up on the board. I don’t care what the score is; we fight until it says 25 on one side. And we did, and I’m proud of them.”

Hill said she was proud of how the Wolverines responded, and knows it can help them down the road.

“I think after that second set when we won so big, they were maybe coming into that second set a little too comfortable,” she said. “They definitely got tested, and for a minute there we were sweating a little bit, but I liked that they fought and didn’t give up on that game. I wanted to get it done in three, and they were able to do that.”

As the Wolverines continue to make their way through conference play for a second time, Hill knows the defending state champions will continue to get everyone’s best shot, and that they’ll have to be ready for it.

“I’ve said it since day one,” she said. “Everybody’s going to treat it like the biggest game of their season, because that’s a big deal. On top of that, you have teams playing their hearts out. We can’t take any point off. Volleyball is a game of mistakes, but I tell them it’s about how you recover from mistakes and how you fix it. I was proud of them tonight.”

Bradley led the way for Polk County, notching 16 kills, two assists and 11 digs. Lewis had eight kills and three block assists, Yoder had six kills and two blocks, Charley Dusenbury had 18 assists and nine digs, Reeve Carroll had 12 digs and Hayden Blackwell added 10 digs for the Wolverines.