Dialog reporter
GREENVILLE – St. Thomas More’s volleyball team had lost its first two matches of the 2017 season, and, for a bit on Sept. 14, the Ravens weren’t sure they were going to have a chance to play their third. Bus troubles delayed the team’s trip to New Castle County, and a 5:30 p.m. scheduled start moved closer to 7 p.m.
The wait was worth it, however, as the Ravens knocked off host AI. DuPont in five tough sets in the consolation round of the inaugural Tiger Classic. It was the first win for new coach Cheyenne Sanchez, and afterward, she and her lone senior, Haley Davidson, clutched the third-place trophy tight, posing for photographs with teammates and eagerly anticipating a few slices of pizza before boarding their bus back to Magnolia.
“We came in, we tried our hardest, and it paid off,” she said.
Set scores were 25-23, 19-25, 25-17, 20-25 and 15-13.
Davidson talked about how she and two teammates – juniors Madison Murrian and Logan Hughes – would chat each night during the preseason planning the next day’s practice while they waited for a coach to be appointed.
It was, ‘OK, we’re going to work on this, we’re going to work on that.’ We have a fairly new team. But we came through. I want to have a good senior year, and I know they want to have a good junior year,” Davidson said.
Sanchez recalled how she met her players on a Friday, then led them to a play day the next morning.
“The team that I saw that Saturday at that play day was incredible,” she said. “We’ve hit some bumps along the way trying to get used to each other and trying to figure out where everybody needs to play, but the team that I saw out there today is the team that I know we have. And that team is an amazing team.”
A 25-17 win in the third set and an early four-point lead in the fourth had the Ravens (1-2) thinking victory, but the Tigers stormed back with runs of six and five points. The second included three aces by Sydney Stevens and turned a one-point A.I. lead to 21-15. A bump kill from Murrian brought St. Thomas More to within 21-19, but the Tigers scored four of the next five, including a kill down the middle by Stephanie Evans to close it out. That sent the match to a decisive 15-point fifth set.
The fifth was tied six times, including at 10, 11 and 12. Two unforced Tigers errors gave the Ravens match point, and after a timeout by the home team, A.I. was able to score one more time. The match ended when a bump over the net by a Tiger glanced off the antenna in front of the scorer’s table. When the “out” sign went up, the Ravens danced on to the court.
“We took it to five, but we got it done. The girls thankfully came in, busted it out. They didn’t have long to warm up,” Sanchez said.
Final stats for the Ravens were not available late Thursday night. They are off until Tuesday, when the Delaware Academy for Public Safety and Security visits Magnolia for a 4 p.m. start.
For A.I. duPont, senior Sydney Stevens led the way with 22 kills and 33 digs. The Tigers, who fell to 0-2, travel to Mount Pleasant Monday at 4:45 p.m.
