CHEYENNE – Hailey Marshall was convinced Thursday’s match against Cheyenne Central needed to be closed out.
The senior had the final two kills in the third and fourth sets, to help propel the Lady Thunderbirds over the Lady Indians 25-21, 17-25, 27-25, 25-19.
“I’m excited to be back in the front row,” said Marshall, who had nine kills. “I always want to help out my team the best that I can, and if that’s how I can do it then I’m excited about it.”
The first and third sets of the match featured a lot of rallies and big plays from both teams.
East went on a five-point run midway through the opening set to set themselves up with a 10-6 lead following an Ashley Marshall service ace. It wasn’t long before Central took the lead with a Joslyn Siedenburg block and East coach Nicole Quigley called a timeout. The T-Birds scored seven of the next nine points to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Indians bounced back in the second game and jumped out to a 7-2 lead. East came within three points a few times, but was never able to pull closer than that or threaten to take the lead.
“We’re just trying to get better with each match and compete every set,” Central coach Maggie Burns said. “We want to build on each match now and peak at the right time.”
Central carried that energy and momentum into the third set and held an early 5-1 advantage behind two kills and a block from Reese Bradley. East flipped the script and went on a five-point run of its own and took a 6-5 lead.
The remainder of the back-and-forth set included 13 ties as neither team could manage to maintain the momentum on its side of the court. The Indians had an opportunity to put the game away holding a 25-24 lead, but East’s swings closed out the set with a kill from Kiera Walsh followed by back-to-back kills from Hailey Marshall.
“It’s great to always have a battle,” Quigley said. “We try to enforce that at practice, every point means the same and when all of our girls our on that same page, we’re a tough team.”
Unlike the previous set, momentum favored one team for the majority of the fourth and final set. A Dani Beard kill capped a six-point run from the visiting team, and East held a 10-3 lead before going on a seven-point run. Again, two consecutive kills from Hailey Marshall iced the set, and the match for the T-Birds.
Beard finished with 15 kills and 13 digs for East. Walsh had 10 kills and three blocks. Alison Crock added 32 assists and nine digs and libero Boden Liljedahl had 19 digs.
Bradley and Lexi Puev each had 11 kills for Central. Autumn Kotunok finished with 14 assists and 10 digs while Emma Peel notched 16 assists and four digs.
“If we stick together, we can beat any team out there,” Marshall said. “But we can’t do it without staying as a team, so we just have to be a team, use teamwork, stay composed but we can’t do it without each other.”
Robert Munoz is a writer for WyoSports. He can be reached at rmunoz@wyosports.net. Follow him on twitter @rmunoz307.
