Shorthanded Clovers swept by Eels

CLOVERDALE – The Cloverdale Clover volleyball team hosted the Clay City Eels Tuesday night in a non-conference matchup. The young Clovers dropped the match to the Eels in three sets, 25-20, 25-18 and 25-9. The loss dropped the Clovers to 0-5 on the season, while the Eels improved to 3-1.

“I thought we did a lot of good things tonight. We played pretty well early,” Cloverdale head coach Paige Glassburn said.

The Clovers came out and played competitively early on. The Eels jumped out to a quick 8-3 lead in the first set. Cloverdale rallied, outscoring Clay City 8-1 over the next stretch highlighted by an Abby Hilton ace.

Volleyball tends to be a game of momentum and the Eels took that momentum away as Emma Baumgartner, Abbi Jo Grupe and Lizzie Sanders went to work at the net and made a run of their own to take a 15-12 lead. The Clovers would not let Clay City run away with the set but could not muster enough offensive firepower and fell 25-20 in the first set.

“We played well early and fought pretty hard, but we have a lot of new players and are learning how we play with each other,” Glassburn said.

The Clovers got off to a hot start in the second set. A block and a kill by Keelie Price bookended a pair of Jacie Neese aces to give the Clovers a quick 4-1 lead.

Neese, playing her first extended minutes for Cloverdale, impressed her coach.

“I told Jacie she had to step up with Lillie Jones out. She really did well as our setter tonight on short notice,” Glassburn said.

The Clovers would then extend their lead to 10-5, but momentum turned on Cloverdale. A rotation error cost the Clovers a couple of points and long delay. Whether it was the loss of points or the lengthy delay, Clay City seized control and stormed back to take a 14-11 lead as the Clovers had a few unforced errors.

“We, less than an hour before game time, had to change up our rotations due to losing (Jones) to sickness. We also had another girl out and that hurt us in our rotations. I think the confusion of what happened impacted our girls,” Glassburn said of her team playing without two starters.

Although the Clovers lost the lead, they would not allow the set to get away from them. The Clovers stayed close as Emily Mann provided an ace and a pair of kills by Chloe Meek had the game close until the Eels scored six of the last seven points to take the set 25-18 and a 2-0 lead.

“I am really proud of how Emily played tonight. She is kind of like my underclass captain. She does a great job of keeping our girls up,” Glassburn said of her junior.

The Clovers stayed close early in the final set as Clay City led just 6-4 before going on 15-2 run. The Clovers couldn’t seem to get Baumgartner out of the service box as she piled up five aces in that stretch. Clay City finished off the match and the victory setting the final score of 25-9 in that final set.

“We will get better and we have some players out who have never played volleyball before and we don’t have a lot of experience; we will get better and I am proud of how we played,” Glassburn said.

The Clovers do not have much time to rest as they will host Western Indiana Conference foe West Vigo on Thursday night.