The Scott Eagles volleyball team has been known to pull things out of a hat to win big games and the latest 37th District championship is a prime example.
Veteran head coach Andrea Sullivan said the Eagles needed to see other offensive weapons involved after the 3-2 regular season loss at district arch-rival Campbell County on Sept. 27, in addition to their two main hitters in junior Brooklyn Helm and sophomore Milyn Minor. Well, the Eagles used their season team motto ‘small but mighty’ ways to knock off the Camels on Thursday, 3-2 (25-17, 25-22, 20-25, 18-25, 15-13) for their first 37th District championship since 2020.
“That’s what it takes to beat Campbell County. They’re a great team,” Sullivan said. “They have phenomenal middles and they have good assets all around the middle. That’s something where we had to find a way to win. It was one of the best final matches I think I’ve been a part of.”
Scott recorded 48 kills as Minor put down 14 and Helm had eight as the Eagles hit a lot of different areas to keep the Camels guessing defensively. Scott’s lone senior in Brooke Balsley and sophomore Morgan Justice had eight kills each and Payton Grigsby had seven to go with 10 digs and three aces. Even setter Ryann Grigsby recorded three kills, finishing the first game on a setter dump.
“We were focused on different shots that we worked on in practice and that worked really well,” Helm said. “We can mix things up. We went deep and short, then did things with the tips as well.”
Scott even made some things happen at the net with 16 blocks. Balsley and Justice had two solo blocks and five assisted each. Payton Grigsby had one solo and three assisted blocks with Minor blocking one solo and assisting two others with Helm assisting four blocks.
Balsley’s last block ended the game. Tied at 11 in the fifth set after Campbell County senior Emma Manser landed an ace, Minor had a kill and the Camels committed a double hit violation to give the Eagles a 13-11 lead. After a bad pass, Justice landed a kill to give the Eagles match point. Camels senior middle blocker Lexi Scharold landed a kill to trim the lead to 14-13. The Camels then tried to hit one over, but Balsley put it down.
“I didn’t think it was real and I thought I was in the net,” Balsley said of the last play. “That’s usually how it goes. It was the right place at the right time, which is really what blocking is all about. We knew what we had to do to win this game and everybody had a part. Every player did her job including the bench players.”
Scott finished with 41 digs, 10 aces and 45 assists. Libero Elise Manhardt dug up 13 balls to go with three aces. Helm added three aces and six digs with Minor digging up seven balls and Ryann Grigsby contributing 41 assists.
“I think a big part of it was reading their hitters,” Manhardt said. “They had a lot of tendencies. Working as a team and making adjustments in the huddle really helped us win. One mistake doesn’t need to lead to other mistakes.”
The Eagles built a 9-3 lead in the second game. But the Camels came back to cut it to 23-22 after a Manser block. Balsley put one down off blocks and a long hit gave the Eagles the second game.
Campbell County had a lot of success with the quick sets to Manser and Scharold in the previous meeting. The Camels did more of that over the next three games tallying 51 kills, 69 digs, 45 assists, 15 blocks and six aces. Manser and Scharold had five blocks each with Scharold pounding down 24 kills and Manser 21. Manser also had three aces and setter Hope Hamilton had 44 assists.
The Camels dug up balls better as the game progressed. Ava Crowl had 18 digs with Ella Thorwarth and Lola Haun tallying 17 and 12, respectively.
Scott did go up 6-2 in the third game. But Hamilton served an ace and Scharold landed a block to give the Camels a 12-9 advantage. The game had a number of ties before Scharold gave the Camels the lead for good at 20-19 on a tip kill. They won that game on a long hit.
“Something we did is take the second set and ran with it,” said Mikah Freppon, Campbell County head coach. “In that third set, we had that enduring mentality. We put everything out on the floor. We conditioned hard for this and we were not ready to give up. I’m proud of how we were a different team from when we showed up at square one to how we changed things up in the middle of the match.”
Campbell County started the fourth game off better going on a 4-0 run off a Scharold kill and Manser ace to go up 7-3. The Eagles came back to tie it on a Payton Grigsby ace at 7-7. But the Camels ran off five straight as Manser landed one on the back line and blocked another one with Crowl putting down a kill. The Camels extended their lead to as much as nine before Scott cut the lead to five twice. Manser ended that game with a block to send it to a decisive fifth game.
The final game stayed close with the Eagles going up 10-7 after a Camels net hit. But Manser landed another kill and Hamilton had a block to trim it to 10-9. After a Helm kill off a block, Haun dug one up that landed on the right line and Manser had an ace to tie the game at 11 setting up the finish.
Both teams advance to the 10th Region Tournament that starts Monday at Harrison County. Scott will take on Bourbon County, Augusta or Pendleton County and Campbell County will take on George Rogers Clark, Harrison County or Bracken County.