Defense helps carry Polk County past Mountain Heritage for fourth straight win

Play at the net often provides the glamour in the typical high school volleyball match, kills and blocks drawing crowd and player reaction.

Yet Tuesday night, Polk County could credit its first home win of the season, in large part, to everything it did away from the net.

The Wolverines had a good night offensively, but their floor defense proved absolutely vital in a 25-17, 25-22, 25-18 hard-fought victory over Mountain Heritage in a Western Highlands Conference matchup.

Winning its fourth straight match, Polk County (4-2, 2-0) overcome talented Mountain Heritage sophomore Alex Boone and a gritty squad that battled the Wolverines on nearly every point. There were several long rallies in the match, thanks in no small part to Polk County’s defensive play. Polk players routinely hit the floor to dig Heritage shots, saved shots hit into the net and made numerous other efforts to prolong points, often en route to winning them.

“Defensively, we struggled at times with our blocking, and that’s something we will continue to work on,” said Polk County head coach Molly Corhn. “But our passing defense and our back-row defense played awesome.

“Kendall Hall is a freshman, and I’ve put a lot of pressure on her in the back. For her to be back there digging out those hard hits and to just be 14 years old, she is doing an awesome job.”

Having led most of the first two sets, Polk County fell behind 6-2 in the third behind Boone’s power at the net. But the Wolverines began to rally, and senior hitter Sarah Phipps displayed her own prowess with a kill to tie the match at 9, another to tie it again at 10 and a third to give Polk County a 12-11 edge. Phipps added yet another kill before Cameron Capozzi followed with a cross-court hit to give the Wolverines a 14-11 lead and force Mountain Heritage to take a timeout.

The margin steadily grew from that point on, with Phipps tapping home a point to close out the match.

“This was a really good win,” Corhn said. “There were moments when I wanted to say, ‘what are we doing out there?’. But we played really well and came together. It was good to get that first home win. I’m glad we got it done in three (sets).”

Polk opened a 12-6 lead in the first set, then led 18-11 when Capozzi made two defensive gems, a one-hand dig of a ball near the sideline, then another to prolong the point, Reagan Waddell eventually winning it with a kill. The Cougars (2-3, 0-2) called a timeout at that point, but Kara Overholt served the set’s final three points, with a Phipps kill ending the set.

Overholt then served Polk to a 6-0 lead in the second set, the lead then growing to 11-3, before Heritage began to slowly climb back into the set. The Cougars finally closed to within one at 21-20, with Corhn taking a timeout at that mark. A Lily Owens dink, followed by a Capozzi ace, pushed the lead to 23-20 before Heritage won the next two points. Waddell then drilled a kill into the middle of Heritage’s defense, and Phipps followed with a kill to close out the set.

Phipps finished with 18 kills and 10 digs, with Owens added 10 kills and nine digs. Waddell had eight kills and Hall had 35 digs. Overholt finished with 41 assists, four kills, 13 digs and three aces.

Polk County also earned a 25-21, 25-16 win in the junior varsity match.

Polk County returns to action on Thursday, traveling to Mitchell for another WHC match.