Lakeview can’t overcome adversity, falls to South Range
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BEAVER TOWNSHIP -- Lakeview recovered from an early setback and hung tough throughout, but the Bulldogs were nonetheless unable to hand South Range its first loss of the season Tuesday.
After dropping the first set of their Northeast 8 Conference (NE8) match, the Bulldogs, who found themselves on the unfortunate end of several calls and became increasingly frustrated with the officiating, issued a stiff response to the Raiders and took the second set but ultimately went down in four competitive sets on the road.
"I think we played very well," Lakeview head coach Heather Kiser said. "I think we were fighting a lot of things that were out of our control. We had some adversity going on. I think that we just put the mid system a little too much, but I'm proud of my girls to go out and fight and take a set from them. It just shows them that we can fight."
Lakeview, as it did in each set Tuesday, carved out a 7-4 lead early before the Raiders found their groove and retook the advantage. The Bulldogs tied the score at 16 with a kill by Anna Haynie, who battled above the net with Anna Toy and Lily Weaver throughout the evening.
The Raiders, however, rattled off six consecutive points, forcing Lakeview to use its pair of timeouts. The breaks, while briefly effective, could not completely halt the momentum of South Range, which earned the opening-set win 25-18.
South Range's comeback came at a much later point in the second set, during which the Raiders found themselves in a five-point deficit before rallying to tie it at 19. Unlike the first set, though, Lakeview came through in the end, when it tied the set at 24 and, a little later, won three straight points to take the set 27-25.
"I felt like that was probably the set that we played with the least amount of energy," South Range coach T.J. Irons said. "I felt like we weren't really flying around as much as we were early on."
Down 13-9 in the third set, the Raiders won five points in a row and closed even stronger than they had to end the first set, winning the final five points to earn a 25-19 set win.
"They are very tough. Their hitters disguise their roles and their tricks very well," Kiser said of South Range. "We started to read it. And when we put teams in system, it's just going to come back at us. But I think that on the opposite side of that, I think we were getting a lot of good digs tonight on their offense, making them probably take more swings than what they're used to."
An effective South Range timeout slowed the Bulldogs' roll after four straight points to make it 14-10 in the fourth set. After the timeout, the Raiders won 15 of the final 21 points as Lakeview became visibly frustrated with several close calls that did not go its way.
"Lakeview is just so good. They're so well coached, they have such great tradition," Irons said. "When you play them, you're in for a fight, and we told our girls that. The big thing was that we knew there was gonna be side-out volleyball. And then usually, if you can get a couple against somebody on the team, they'll give in, but Lakeview wasn't gonna do it tonight."
With the win, South Range improved to 11-0 overall and 6-0 in the league. The Raiders are at Cardinal Mooney on Thursday before resuming NE8 play at home vs. Poland next Tuesday.
The Bulldogs, who were looking for their third straight win Tuesday, slipped to 8-3 on the season and 4-2 in the NE8 with the loss. Lakeview visits Poland on Thursday as it begins the second round of conference play.
"I just hope that they learn we just have to play cleaner and tougher through adversity," Kiser said.