The loss of a home-opening match wasn’t foremost in Molly Corhn’s mind Wednesday night.
Of more concern was the health of freshman libero Kendall Hall, injured while chasing a free ball early in Polk County’s 25-20, 19-25, 25-19, 25-21 loss to Brevard. Diving in an attempt to keep the ball alive, Hall struck her head on the court, remaining on the floor for several minutes while Polk County staff assessed her condition. Hall eventually stood and walked off the floor to loud applause from the large crowd in attendance.
Corhn, making her home debut as Polk County’s head coach, said Hall would be re-evaluated on Thursday, but appeared to be OK and could possibly play in Thursday’s match at Enka.
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Its lineup out of sync with Hall sidelined, Polk County rallied to win the second set, but dropped the final two sets to fall to 0-2 on the season. Brevard improved to 2-1.
“I’m really proud of the girls,” Corhn said. “The odds were totally against us after we had to change our lineup. But we came together and started playing with heart.
“We just made little mistakes at the end, and that’s what hurt us. I think we also had some first-game jitters, with the big crowd. That was the first game for our freshmen in that gym, and I think that affected them a bit.”
The Wolverines, down 10-5 in the first set when Hall was injured, got no closer than 20-18 before the Blue Devils pulled away. Polk then opened the second set with a 10-2 run, but Brevard rallied to within four points at 20-16.
At that point, Polk County fed senior hitter Sarah Phipps on successive plays, and Phipps responded with kills on both for a 22-16 lead. Two Brevard points later, another Phipps kill made it 23-18, and the Wolverines closed out the set, briefly evening the match before Brevard captured the final two sets for the victory.
“There are some things we have to fix right away, but we recognize what those things are that we have to fix,” Corhn said. “It’s disappointing to lose our home opener, but I’m very proud of how, with our libero getting hurt, we handled everything tonight. I’m really proud of how we fought.”
Phipps finished the match with 27 kills to lead Polk County. Senior Kara Overholt had 39 assists, while Lily Owens had 15 digs and four kills and Addie Lynch added 12 digs.
