When you’re rallying for minutes at a time, the notion that every point counts is an understatement. Orange County’s volleyball team is off to a great start, but they had to earn their points on Thursday night when they hosted out of district rival Madison County.
There were no big scoring frenzies, as no team led by more than five points. Instead, the match between the Hornets and Mountaineers was a point for point affair with Orange coming out on top 3-1, 19-25, 25-20, 26-24, 25-21.
“Orange outscrapped us,” said Mountaineers coach Lindsay Von Herbulis. “They played so hard and they wanted the win a little bit more.”
In all four games, both teams managed just one or two points of separation all the way into the high teens, with each point getting longer and longer. By game three and four, multi-minute rallies had become commonplace.
“(Being up or down by) three points in a game, especially against a team like Madison, is a lot,” said Hornets junior Emma Chronister. “When you win just one point after rallying for five minutes, it puts you on a different level. You value every point. You’re ready to rally for 10 minutes just for another point.”
Chronister had a monster game for Orange (4-1) up front, leading the team with 20 kills while also chipping in 16 digs on defense. Hornets sophomore Rachel Donaldson had 15 kills and 5 blocks while her teammate, Maria Katulka, also had impressive numbers as she put up a game high 34 assists. Jessika Morris tied Chronister for the team high in digs with 16.
Orange’s defense was the difference in the match, as Madison hit hard and hit often.
“We’ve finally got some height which is nice, but we’ve been practicing our defense more than anything else,” said Orange coach Angela Forth. “You’ve got to get into the other team’s head. If they can’t get a kill it’s going bother them and affect their play.”
Getting past Madison’s hard-hitting Tori Puryear was the daunting task for Orange on both offense and defense. However, no matter how well Puryear played, the Hornets never shied away from her portion of the net.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to keep going to the same places even if you get shut down,” Chronister said. “I think for (Puryear) she’s so good that she’s probably used to having people just drop out. We just wanted to stay in there and be persistent.”
Puryear finished with 13 kills for the Mountaineers (1-3), and her setter, Jordan Ayler was equally impressive with her 31 assists. After taking the first game, Madison struggled to capitalize on their chances late in the last three games.
“It was the little plays that cost us the points tonight,” Von Herbulis said. “We know what we’re good at and what we need to work on. I think Orange exposed one of our weaknesses which was the out of system play.”
