XENIA — Xenia claimed a 25-8, 25-20, 25-15 win over the visiting Wilmington Hurricane on Aug. 21, but Threats admitted that it wasn’t the Buccaneers’ cleanest played match.
“I think it was definitely played like a first game of the season,” Threats said. “We’re out here trying to defend our (Greater Western Ohio Conference, American South-division) championship, so we’ll work hard to do that. But yeah, we have some things to work on.”
The third and final set featured a Buccaneers lineup violation that took about 5 or so minutes for match officials to re-organize. When Xenia (1-0) was finally in its proper rotation, they fended off Wilmington’s 10-8 rally the rest of the way to claim the match.
“That was one girl in our rotation who jumped ahead. She was too eager to serve, I think,” Threats chuckled. “Besides that, it really wasn’t that bad. Just a first game, maybe some rust. We’ll be alright.”
Threats credited Megan Brewer, Saphron Cummins, Heidi Alex and Camille Hughes with solid serving efforts in the win.
“Camille’s one of our newer girls on the team, and she did a good job of getting her serves in and getting us going in the second set. That was a really good job from her,” Threats added.
Wilmington coach Jordan Watson was encouraged by how her youthful Hurricane bunch was able to battle back after the 25-8 first-set loss.
“I thought we started out pretty weak in that first set, but we definitely came out and picked up the pace in the second and third sets, and we were able to finish strong,” she said.
Set two was all even at 18 points apiece, before Xenia closed it out with a 7-2 run.
Xenia jumped out to a 16-4 lead in the third set, but Wilmington battled back to within 19-14 on a Riley Flint kill.
Watson wouldn’t single out any players who performed well in the match. She said the team already knew what they would be working on in Tuesday’s Aug. 22 practice.
“I thought we played well as a team, but there weren’t too many shining stars in this match. But everyone did put their points in,” she said.
Nyla Bailey and Flint showed solid net play for the Hurricane (0-1), and Courtney Smart came up with a third-set service ace that started a six-point Wilmington rally. Kaylee Tackett bashed a winning kill during that run. But Wilmington was whistled for six carry violations in the final two sets.
Xenia gets right into Greater Western Ohio Conference American South divisional action with a 7 p.m. home match Tuesday, Aug. 22 with Riverside Stebbins. Wilmington’s next match will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday Aug. 23, on the road against Georgetown.