PREP VOLLEYBALL: Dark Horses gallop past Warriors

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 22, 2018 5:51 AM

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Losses sting.

Anna Hajjar begs to differ.

The fourth-year Eastern Wayne head volleyball coach can handle a defeat as long as she sees growth from her players.

"As a reflection from last game [against Clinton], it was a completely different team, which I'm happy about,"Hajjar said moments after a 25-18, 25-13, 25-16 setback to the Dark Horses on Tuesday evening.

"They're upset about losing, but I'm talking about growth. That last game [at Clinton] wasn't all that great point-wise, but [today] was 300 percent better."

Hajjar pointed out that serve receive and setting improved from the first meeting.

The EW alumnae also noted, this time, her team didn't break down mentally once it fell behind in each set. The Warriors (2-2 overall) clawed back on several points, particularly in the second set.

Once they found some fluidity in their offense, they slowly pecked away at an early five-point deficit.

Rayven Smith's solo block against middle hitter Jasmine Ford closed the gap to 14-13.

Clinton pushed its advantage back to five, only to see Eastern Wayne rally again.

Smith's off-speed dump inside the 3-meter line off of Paige Neiman's assist ignited a set-tying three-point run. Down 23-21, Ayanna Bynum served an ace. The Warriors played relentless on the next point -- won on a monster kill by Bynum, which knotted the set at 23-23.

The Dark Horses (3-1) sealed the set with two straight points.

"We were able to pick ourselves back up," Hajjar said.

Clinton stole momentum in the decisive third set.

The Dark Horses began to find some open space inside the 3-meter line, and coupled with a few Eastern Wayne miscues, built a 10-1 lead.

The Warriors pulled to within six points on several occasions, the last at 22-16 on Demya Yelverton's ace. However, Clinton answered with a match-clinching 3-2 run, capped by an EW hitting error.

"I'm happy with the outcome," Hajjar said. "That was a great team. Our serves were great ... still had a couple of serving errors this time, but not 16 [like the first meeting]."

Neiman ended the night with 24 assists. Yelverton, who Hajjar declared as the player of the game, cranked out 10 kills. The Warriors collected 28 kills as a team.

Alana Kazar paced the defense with 10 digs.