Valle rallies back to beat Lady Rebels in three

PARK HILLS — After staging a late comeback in game one, the Central Lady Rebels were unable to duplicate the task, falling to the Valle Lady Warriors in three games 25-21, 21-25 and 25-15.

Trailing 18-14, a stuff block by Sydney Skaggs seemed be the turning point for the Lady Rebels as they rallied to score the next three on serve with Megan Skaggs nailing a pair of kills to knot the score at 18-18 in game one.

Central tied it again at 20-20, and setter Mackenzie Jones made a slam dunk of  Valle spike to put the Lady Rebels up 22-20. A missed attack from the backcourt by Valle made it game-pint and Brook McKinney closed the door with a hard-driven spike for a kill. McKinney led the Lady Rebels attackers with eight kills.

The Lady Warriors did not slacken up from their game plan as they continued to keep the pressure on Central’s defense. Despite their attackers misfiring several times in the last two games, Valle continued to attack at every opportunity.

Much of their attack depended on the Lady Warriors’ defense as Kylie Meyer and Kamrie Meyer combined in the backcourt for 25 digs between them. Valle’s defenders had a total of 46 digs in the match, but their constant attacking forced the Lady Rebels to make 74 digs as a team.

Sydnie Weiler served the Lady Warriors in surging to the lead at 10-6 in game two, a lead which they would not relinquish. The Lady Rebels battled back to tie the game 12-12, but could not take the lead as Valle stayed just ahead by a point or two until Weiler again toed the service line to serve the Lady Warriors to a 21-17 advantage. 

The Lady Rebels struggled at the service line with five service errors in game two, resulting in several Central rallies being squelched. The Lady Rebels served 12 balls either into the net or out the back of the court during the entire match.

Mackenzie Wipfler led Valle’s attack at the net and she also doubled up with Gretchen Koller to block four of Central’s spikes. Koller also had three solo blocks and Kamrie Meyer made three solos.

McKinney served Central out the early lead in game three at 3-2, but it would be the last time the Lady Rebels would lead or even score on serve as the Lady Warriors’ serve receive resulted in points for Valle each time Central put the ball in play. Whitley Bieser served the Lady Warriors to a 6-4 lead, and Valle was never really threatened the rest of the way.

Bieser also led Valle in assists with 10, and Jones led Central with 16.

Vale, now 2-0 will host Festus on Tuesday,  while Central will travel to De Soto the same day for their next scheduled games.