Chuck Larsen
CNHI
CHICKASHA —
Duncan got their eighth match win of the season Tuesday, beating Nancy Waters’ Lady Chicks in straight games at the Activity Center.
The Chicks looked like they had a little hangover from Monday night’s tough road loss at Tecumseh, coming out flat again and dropping their first two games by identical 25-17 scores.
They came out firing on all eight cylinders for game three, running out to a 15-9 lead on the strength of a 7-0 run with Shelby Crosley serving, but the Demons battled back to tie it late and the Chicks let it slip away, 25-21.
“I was afraid this would happen after we got back in late from Tecumseh last night,” Waters said. “It’s no excuse, though. I told them that if we only played when we felt good, we wouldn’t play very much.”
Junior Britton Scott’s three aces broke a 7-7 tie in game one, put momentum on the visitors’ side and Duncan just kept extending for the win.
The wheels fell off early in game two as the Demons opened up a quick 12-2 lead but the Chicks fought their way back in as DawnShaye Blakes served up a six-point run to close to 17-13. But again, momentum went back to the visitors and they pulled away again for another 25-17 win.
Chickasha had their backs to the wall in game three and finally played to potential, but Duncan rallied to force ties at 20, 21 and 23 before putting it away on two more aces from Scott.
“We’ve got to come out hard every time,” Waters said. “Duncan beat us before and I think we kind of had that in our heads a little.”
There wasn’t much talking going on out on the floor and the Chicks simply looked like they weren’t playing with much confidence.
“There can’t be any hesitation – you’ve got to come out ready to go,” the coach said. “We didn’t start playing until halfway into that second game and we made a couple of errors at the wrong time in game three that just killed us. The same thing happened at Tecumseh Monday.”
Chickasha had no answer for new Duncan junior Breanna Fritschow, a big, strong 5-11 hitter from Dallas who broke the Chicks’ backs every time they tried to get something going.
Still, the Chicks beat themselves by not playing consistently, a problem that plagued them last season. Waters is hoping that this year won’t be a repeat of last year’s late collapse.
“We’ve got to get this out of our heads and we’ve got to do it now,” she said.
The stats tell the tale. The Chicks finished with 11 attack errors, 13 return errors, eight service errors and 30 ball handling errors.
They only mustered nine total kills with Kali Gann leading with three. Will’Eisha Irby had three of the team’s four blocks. Setter Hailey Angel only had six assists, Crosley led with five aces and Angel and Sydney McNabb led with five digs each.
The JV Chicks also lost in straight games, 11-25 and 16-25 but the middle school team opened the set of matches with a three-game win, 25-5, 23-25 and 15-13. Alei Gann served for 12 straight points in game one and Elizabeth Wilson served a 6-0 run to break the rubber game open and lock down the win. The varsity Chicks, now at 5-9, will try to turn things around tonight at Mt. St. Mary’s.
