In an unusual Monday night game Deerfield volleyball took on the Hoggers of NMH for the second time this season. The first time the two schools met NMH bested the Big Green 3-0, and left the Deerfield girls with a feeling that they could have played better.
Recognizing the chance to prove themselves that this game represented, prove themselves is what they did. In the first set Deerfield and NMH went point for point for a long time, showing that the two teams were pretty evenly matched. However, Deerfield finally started to push ahead, and did so decidedly. The final score of the set was 25-20, and Deerfield was left with all of the momentum.
In the second set NMH came back fighting. Both teams stepped it up a notch, but NMH’s middle hitter and outside had some tricky tips that got through Deerfield’s defense, and their setter served very well. NMH took the set 25-22, but Deerfield was not to be discouraged.
In the third set Deerfield came back swinging. We had incredible kills from all of our offensive players, especially Imani Kindness-Coleman ’18, Camila Navarro ’20, and Lara Akande ’20. Our serve receive was almost perfect as Jill Carroll ’18, Georgia Quesnelle ’19, and Navarro were able to set us up to create the offense we have been looking for all season. Imani also stepped up incredibly and started to dig every tip and hit that NMH sent our way. NMH also stepped it up, and at the end of a hard-fought set NMH had it at 27-25.
Between the third and fourth set the Deerfield girls had an incredible amount of energy. There was no semblance of fatigue, and they were going to get this set. The fourth set began with a six-point run by Navarro as server. Not only did she serve some incredible aces, but her teammates put together a great effort to keep her back on the line. Deerfield extended this lead throughout the game, and despite a comeback by NMH toward the end, Deerfield pulled out a distinguished win, again by a score of 25-20.
As the teams prepared for the tie-breaking fifth set, Deerfield girls acknowledged the momentum that they had, and the need to keep it. They were all incredibly excited about the opportunity to win the match, and they came out absolutely dominating. When the teams switched sides halfway through the game the score was 8-1 in favor of Deerfield. There was not a single moment of hesitation or lull in energy as they pushed through and won the set 15-6.
An exciting day for Deerfield, we hope to use this energy and the scrappiness we found to face St. Paul’s on Wednesday. St. Paul’s is another team that we lost to earlier in the season where we felt we could have done better. An exciting 32-30 third set left us wanting more, and on Wednesday we should get just that!