Mathews rallies from 2-set deficit to stun Liberty
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LIBERTY -- Liberty suffered a stinging home defeat vs. Mathews on Wednesday.
After winning each of the first two sets, including the second set in dominant fashion, the Leopards dropped the subsequent two and could not rally in the fifth set of a 3-2 loss.
"Came out strong, couldn't finish," Liberty head coach Nicolette Frketic said. "That's gonna be our biggest hurdle all season, is mental toughness. And I've been stressing it, and we're either gonna learn from the hurt or we're gonna have a long season."
Although Mathews controlled the early portion, the opening set proved to be as tight as could be.
After falling behind 13-6, the Leopards won eight of the next nine points. And despite a Mustangs timeout, Liberty kept cruising to a 23-20 lead.
Nearing a Leopards set point, Mathews rallied, winning four points in a row and earning a set point of its own. However, a timeout by Frketic before the 48th point of the set proved crucial, as the Leopards tied it up afterward. After a few more minutes of back-and-forth action, Liberty eked out a 28-26 set victory.
The triumphant win in the first set bled into the second set, where the Leopards rolled. After holding on to a slim, 8-6 lead early on, Liberty won 17 of the final 20 points of the set to win 25-9 and go ahead 2-0 in the match.
The Leopards' momentum came to a halt in set three, though, as Mathews created some of its own.
Tied 7-7 early on in the third set, the Mustangs soon found a groove, taking a comfortable lead that continued to grow as the set progressed. The Leopards could not manage any consecutive points when they needed them, allowing Mathews to get on the board with a 25-16 set win.
"I said, 'We need to communicate and we need to move our feet. Nothing hits the ground. Do like we do in practice,'" Mathews head coach Danielle Tenney said of her message after falling behind 2-0. "Once the girls came together, they did what they needed to do. When they work together, they win together."
Much like Liberty's momentum-fueled second-set victory, the Mustangs dismantled the Leopards to tie the match at two sets apiece.
In the fourth set, Mathews quickly built a 10-2 lead behind seven straight points. The Mustangs, buoyed by multiple line and net violations by the Leopards and a string of service aces by Jessa Detelich and Maci Darlington, then won 12 points in a row to go ahead 22-3. Not even a late Liberty comeback attempt, in which the Leopards won eight of 10 points, could stop Mathews from taking the set 25-11 and tying the match.
Liberty, despite its best efforts, could not pull things together enough in the fifth and deciding set to avoid a loss Wednesday.
The Mustangs jumped out ahead 7-3, and, after a Liberty flurry to pull back within one, they widened its advantage and cleanly closed out a 15-10 set win and 3-2 match victory.
"[Momentum's] huge," Tenney said. "When these guys work together and they keep their energy up, they feed off of each other. They feed off the bench, they feed off of coaches. That's what it takes for them to get the job done."
Frketic, whose Leopards slipped to 0-2 on the season with the loss, said her team's ability to deal with the ups and downs of matches is the biggest area of concern early on in the year.
"I told the girls, I said, '[Mathews'] gonna want it, you gotta want it more. And they wanted it more," Frketic said. "And then the momentum started to shift, and we just couldn't get it back and couldn't get out of our heads.
"This team has the ability to win games. This is quite honestly the best team that I have coached so far at Liberty. And they have the potential, but again, like you saw tonight, it's gonna be the mental toughness and finishing the games and not just letting your opponent come back in and swoop in and get the win and us take the L."
The Leopards are back in action today at Crestview, while Mathews (1-1) will travel to Ashtabula to face St. John.
Tenney said she hopes her team can address the occasional "breakdown of communication" as the Mustangs play more matches.
"As long as we can keep that up and keep moving," Tenney said, "I think we have a chance. We'll go far."