Late in Thursday’s key Western Highlands Conference clash at Polk County, Mountain Heritage standout Alex Boone wound up and hammered one of the many kill attempts she fired at the Wolverines.
Polk County’s defense stopped the blast. Mountain Heritage reformed its attack and again set Boone, who again came from the outside to fire a shot at the Wolverines. And, again, Polk County stopped the hit, this time the ball eventually finding Ashley Love, who pushed a two-handed shot over the Cougar defense and into an open spot near the back line.
The Wolverines played defense that well and played offense that smartly for most of Thursday night, sweeping Mountain Heritage 27-25, 25-10, 25-18 in a match delayed for a time after Mountain Heritage encountered a traffic delay on I-26 en route to Columbus. The wait was worth it for the Wolverines.
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Polk County (12-4, 8-0) all but knocked Mountain Heritage out of the WHC title chase, the Cougars (9-3, 5-3) now three games behind with four games remaining. The Wolverines still own a two-game lead over Hendersonville, and with wins in their next three league games, Polk County could claim the outright conference crown before a rematch with Hendersonville on Oct. 13. The clincher, in fact, could come at home on Senior Night on Oct. 8 against Owen.
But the Wolverines aren’t preparing yet to hang any banners or hold any celebrations.
“I feel very confident, but I have expectations and the girls have expectations,” said Polk County head coach Molly Hill. “We have goals we want to reach, and that’s what I’m trying to focus on and the girls are trying to focus on. We’ve got to come out and be ready to play and remember what we’re after.”
Thursday’s match turned late in the first set, a tightly-contested battle in which Polk County inched ahead late, taking a 22-17 lead, only to see the Cougars rally behind Boone, the talented junior who has already verbally committed to play collegiately at Charlotte.
Mountain Heritage fought to overcome that deficit and reached set point at 24-23 on a Boone kill. Reagan Waddell kept Polk alive with a kill from the back row, but Boone again slammed a winner to make it 25-24 and again give the Cougars a set point. This time, Love denied the Cougars, hammering a winner from the middle to even the match at 25. A Cougar error gave Polk its first set point and Waddell emphatically claimed it, blasting a kill from outside to give the Wolverines the game.
Buoyed by the win, Polk quickly built an 8-3 lead in the second set, its blocking and back-row defense consistently frustrating the taller Cougars. Mountain Heritage also began having trouble handling Polk’s service game, and the Wolverines raced away, building a 24-7 lead before taking the set at 25-10.
The third set was close early, but a 5-1 run midway through gave Polk a 15-9 edge, and the Wolverines soon closed out the match.
“In the first game our blocking wasn’t there, and with teams like this, you have to block well,” Hill said. “In the second and third games we really picked up our blocking. We slowed down the ball and made it easier on our defense.
“Offensively, we played really smart and started to put the ball where they weren’t.”
Hill gave Mountain Heritage an early surprise, moving Lauren Ketwitz to libero and letting Kendall Hall rotate through the front line. With freshman Ansley Lynch still sidelined by an injury, the move gave Polk additional offensive and blocking help in the front.
“I’m really proud of her,” Hill said. “That probably threw them for a loop. Every team just expects number six (Hall) to be at libero, so they didn’t know what to expect. I’m so proud of her.”
Waddell had 13 kills and 11 digs and Love had 12 kills and 15 digs for Polk. Hall had 16 digs and three aces, with Addie Lynch adding five kills and 15 digs and Savannah Ross guiding the attack with 34 assists and eight digs.
Polk County travels to Brevard on Monday for a non-conference match before journeying on Tuesday to Mitchell.
