Volleyball: Muckers KOs Beatty on their home turf

The Lady Muckers beat the Hornets in the fifth set on the road 25-23, 25-14, 19-25, 23-25, and 15-8.

Muckers (9-11 overall, 2-0 Class 1A Southern) player Kayla Campos led the scoring with 13 points.

Muckers Coach Melissa Jennings was excited over the win.

“The opponent’s serves kept us from our offense, they just did not miss,” the coach said. “We knew coming today we would have a tough match with the Hornets, and thankfully, the girls pulled together and kept up momentum to win.”

The Hornets (11-2, 1-1) were coming off a win over Beaver Dam where Hornets coach Steve Sullivan said his team had problems offensively.

“Out of 86 attempts on offense, we converted 32 into kills,” he said.

This inconsistency came into play on Tuesday’s match.

“Against Tonopah our inconsistency continued,” he said. “Offensively, we had 130 attempts and converted 44 into kills. Thirty-four of those attempts were errors. We had 16 aces and 19 service errors. During that fifth set loss to Tonopah we just mentally shut down and did not have the fight we needed in order to come out with a win.”

This was a non-league match and Beatty (11-2, 2-0) will have the opportunity to face the Muckers again in Tonopah on October 21st.

“We expect an equally competitive match in October against the Hornets. We hope to repeat our victory today,” Jennings said.

Sullivan said his girls have never given up like that in the past, speaking about the fifth set.

“That was the first set I’ve seen this season where we have given up fighting and we need to work on it being the last,” he said. “Moving forward, we are going to continue on improving our skills and to work on our mentality and that desire to fight.”

Fortunately for Beatty, Tuesday’s game was not a league match. The Hornets will regroup and travel to Sandy Valley on Friday at 5 p.m.