DUKE CENTER — There was no questioning Otto-Eldred’s fight and composure during Tuesday night’s District 9 Class A quarterfinal game against Cameron County inside the Terror Dome.
After dropping the first set to the Lady Raiders, the Lady Terrors stormed back and captured the 3-1 win (14-25, 25-21, 25-17, 26-24) by winning the next three sets, which included scoring the final seven points in the fourth set to set up a rematch against Elk County Catholic Thursday in Duke Center — O-E’s lone loss of the season.
Haley Cousins tallied 15 digs for the Lady Terrors along with seven kills, while Emmalee Sheeler racked up 31 assists for O-E. Morgan Dalton finished the game with 12 kills and Reilly Raught recorded 14 digs and seven kills.
“That’s kind of been just the way that we’ve played all season,” O-E head coach Fawn Miller said after the game. “We are a slow start team. It seems like we’ve lost a lot of first sets or we get down by six or seven, but it doesn’t ever shake them, it doesn’t ever shake me, I just feel like they always have the fight to come back and win.”
For Cameron County, Kaelee Bresslin led the Lady Raiders with 15 points and Morgan Lorenzo scored 10. Bresslin also had nine kills and eight digs and Morgan posted seven kills and nine digs.
Mallory McKimm scored 12 points and had five kills and five digs, while Natalie Zucal recorded eight digs.
“I think we came out pretty hot in the first,” Cameron County head coach Jen Dixon said. “We carried the momentum pretty well through the rest of the way, just got us in the end, a couple serves that cost us, but all around, the girls played a hell of a game and we set out a goal at the beginning of this season, we conquered that goal and we wish Otto the best.”
Cameron County’s hard fought night got off to a strong start as the Lady Raiders got out to a 16-7 lead in the first set. O-E would close the gap at 17-13, but Cameron County would go on an 8-1 run to capture the first set over the Lady Terrors.
Dixon thought the team’s ability to build momentum as well as their teamwork and communication played significant roles for the Lady Raiders in their first set victory.
“Serves were on spot. We just controlled the ball very well (in) the first set, so we kind of got a little sloppy in the third and the second set,” Dixon said. “We beat ourselves, so it is what it is.”
The Lady Raiders had another solid start to the second set, taking an 8-3 lead, but O-E would battle back and after a back-and-forth set, the Lady Terrors would emerge with a 25-21 win in the second set to even the score at 1-1.
“Our serving was a little more consistent in the second set,” Miller said. “I think that helped us because we just made some errors at critical times in serve receive and in serving.”
Next, the third set would see O-E jump out to a 15-8 lead, only for Cameron County to storm back and close the gap to within a point at 15-14. However, a 10-3 run from the Lady Terrors would give them a 25-17 set win and 2-1 advantage heading into the fourth set.
Miller’s message to the team was to play fundamental volleyball and get back to what has made the Lady Terrors successful.
“There’s nothing fancy about what we do. It’s serving and serve receive,” Miller said. “We spend an incredible amount of time in serve receive and passing. If you can’t do that, you can’t do anything else.
“I really believe Otto-Eldred is the best serve-receive team in the league. I think that’s what our success has been. My players will tell you, they would like to hit more during practice and I’d say we spend about three quarters of practice either serving or serve receiving.”
After the two teams engaged in another back-and-forth battle, the 10th-seeded Lady Raiders looked destined to force a decisive fifth set after they took a 20-16 lead in the set after a 4-0 run.
After an O-E timeout, Cameron County would get one point away from forcing a fifth set, leading 24-19, but that’s when the Lady Terrors would storm back with a 7-0 run to clinch the set win and quarterfinal victory with the help of their fundamentals and ability to capitalize off cameron County errors.
“I was really proud of that last set, just the fact that we were down six or seven to come back and win,” Miller said. “Again, I just think it speaks to what Otto-Eldred volleyball is. We’re fundamental volleyball and we’re scrappy, that’s what it is.”
As Cameron County now enters the offseason, next year’s team will have new faces with the team graduating eight seniors, according to Dixon, and like a lot of area teams, Dixon and the Lady Raiders are grateful they were able to have a season with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ll be filling a lot of spots for next year,” Dixon said. “We have a lot of work to do in the offseason, but we’ll be ready.”
O-E will have a quick turnaround with the semifinal matchup against ECC taking place Thursday inside the Terror Dome.
The Crusaders swept O-E at home on Sept. 23, but the Lady Terrors are eager for the opportunity to avenge their loss to ECC with a spot in the district title game on the line.
“We felt that we didn’t give (ECC) our best, so my girls are really excited to be able to play them again this season and try to (get) some redemption there,” Miller said. “I think we had one close match with them, but we lost in three. It was just a game where we weren’t prepared. We just didn’t play well. We made a lot of errors in that game, so again, I think my girls are really excited to be able to play them again and try to get that back.”
