Lady Senators fight off scrappy Surry squad in straight sets

Reaching set point was not a problem for Walters State's volleyball team, but finishing proved to be a challenge. Nevertheless, the Lady Senators ended every set with a kill.

Walters State faced a determined Surry team at 'Z' Buda Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon, coming away with a straight-set win over the Knights 25-23, 25-23 and 25-19.

Courtney Dotson, Alaysia McGhee and Amanda Singleton all laid down a kill to end each set for Walters State (5-1), but not before Surry fought back.

In set-point situations, the Knights outscored WSCC 9-3 in the match.

"That's been a theme if you will in the past couple of weeks," Lady Senators coach Megan Blaylock said. "We've been working on that in practice, I think it's just something that's going to have to come over time. We're going to keep practicing it, but right now, it's a little slow but I think we'll get there eventually."

The theme repeated itself in the third set as Walters State opened a 20-11 lead with a 7-0 run during which Dotson served up an ace.

But Surry scored three straight points after Walters State took a 24-16 lead before Singleton's kill gave the Lady Senators the 3-0 win.

It was Morristown East graduate Jania Hill who gave WSCC an early spark, following up a kill with back-to-back service aces for an 11-5 lead. Hill served up 3 aces and recorded 3 kills.

"She's been outstanding," Blaylock said of Hill "She's just very steady for us. We've kept her on the floor quite a bit all the way around. I've really enjoyed watching her. She's developed quite a lot in the past month, and I have a lot of confidence in her."

Dotson led Walters State in service aces with 4 while Olivia Oxendine, who served up 2 aces, matched Singleton with a team-high 6 kills while Taylor Tigue added a pair of blocks. Lexi Wakefield finished the match with 19 digs, and Singleton tallied 10 assists.

Walters State built an early 17-8 lead in the second set, but the comfort didn't last as the Knights responded with a 12-4 run to pull within one on Colby Crater's kill. But WSCC scored three straight points starting with a kill by Singleton and culminating with Hill's service ace to make it 24-20.

Attack errors by the Lady Senators pulled Surry within a point before McGhee slammed a kill to end the set, 25-23.

The teams traded points for much of the first set before attack errors by the Knights opened a 24-20 Walters State lead.

Piper Draughon's kill and Hannah Williams' service ace kept Surry within a point, but Dotson gave the Lady Senators a 1-0 lead in the match with her set-point kill.

"Surry, they're scrappy," Blaylock said. "They played extremely hard. I don't think our girls were necessarily prepared for that, so I think that caught us off guard a little bit. Surry played their butts off."

The Lady Senators are back in action in the Blazer Classic at Vincennes, Indiana, on Friday, taking on Wabash Valley at 3 p.m. and Lake Land at 5 p.m.