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By Jed Blackwell

 

The rally very nearly worked. The lesson definitely will.

Polk County rallied for a game three win and nearly pulled off a stunner in game four before ultimately falling to Brevard 3-1 (19-25, 25-27, 25-15, 18-25) in a matchup of Mountain Foothill 7 Conference co-leaders.

Wolverines coach Molly Hill was proud of the fight shown by her team.

“I thought the win was great,” she said of the third-game victory. “We played in control the whole time, we played with confidence, and finally, all the puzzle pieces were going together.

“We were working through Charley (Dusenbury) getting hurt, Aslyn (Scruggs) stepped up huge, and we took control and won big. I was really happy with that, and I was hoping we could take that momentum into a fourth and fifth set.”

It didn’t quite work out that way. The Wolverines (9-3, 5-1) were flat to start the fourth, eventually trailing 20-8 on a block by the Blue Devils’ Emma Powell.

“Unfortunately, in the fourth, we got down in that serve receive,” Hill said.

Then, it all changed. Brevard (10-3, 6-0) had to take a timeout because of some confusion in substitution that left eight girls on the court. Hill used the opportunity to light a fire under the Wolverines.

“I used that to tell them that it wasn’t over and that we don’t stop playing until there are 25 points on the board. You keep going. You keep fighting,” she said. “They missed their serve, and Mia (Bradley) served and really got us back in the game.

“I just kept telling them that’s why we don’t quit. And the good thing is they’ve got that dogfight. They’ve got that in them.”

Polk County reeled off nine of the game’s next 10 points, closing the gap to 21-17 before falling 25-18.

Even in the loss, Hill saw plenty of good things to build on.

“It’s controllable things that we can do and we can fix,” she said. “I would much rather play a team that’s going to push us, make us better, challenge us and show us what we need to do to be better. I’m big on games like that. It makes us better, and I think it makes us rise to the occasion. We go to another level. I enjoy it. I think it’s good volleyball, and overall it’s going to help us. We just have to learn from this loss.”

Akeela Cunningham and Mia Bradley led the Wolverines with eight kills each, while Morgan Yoder added seven. Dusenbury had 15 assists, with Scruggs stepping in to add 14. Bradley had 23 digs, with Scruggs adding 13, Hayden Blackwell adding 12, and Yoder and Cunningham adding 10 each.

Another challenge awaits Polk County on Wednesday as the Wolverines travel to Enka for a non-conference match.