BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE OBSERVER
SMITHS STATION — No matter the sport, games between Glenwood School and Lee-Scott Academy are characterized by the hallmarks of any good rivalry.
Banter on social media flows during the days leading up to the contest, fans from both schools travel up or down U.S. Highway 280 to support their team and players fight to secure wins and bragging rights.
Last Tuesday’s volleyball match was no exception as the Lady Gators (12-13, 1-2) smothered a valiant comeback attempt by the Lady Warriors (4-11, 1-2) to win 3-1 at Brett Boyer Gymnasium on Sept. 22.
In what proved to be an extremely competitive game, Glenwood won 25-22 in Set 1, 25-19 in Set 2 and 25-18 in Set 4 after Lee-Scott won a thrilling back-and-forth Set 3 28-26.
[Glenwood stats here]
[Lee-Scott stats here]
The match’s pivotal moment came midway the fourth set after Lee-Scott prevailed with late-set heroics in the third.
With the Lady Warriors seeking to make a late-match rally, Glenwood stood strong and closed the game out behind excellent serving and adequately receiving Lee-Scott’s serves.
Following several weeks of not having her squad at full health, Glenwood head coach Kayla Strength said last Tuesday’s win was the shot in the arm the Lady Gators needed.
“It was a great win for us because we’ve kind of struggled a little bit lately since some of our key players have been injured,” Strength said. “We finally got one of them back tonight, Reagan Bowen, and this was her first match back. It was good to see us finally be able to put together a full match. I feel like we took control of things pretty early on.”
Against her school’s biggest rival, Glenwood’s Malea West-Sanchez said the Lady Gators knew they needed to come out of the gate swinging.
“We just wanted to bring the energy like we always do,” West-Sanchez said. “We’ve had a rough couple of matches, but we knew we had to step it up against them, especially since it’s area play. If they had the momentum, we were going to take it back. Even though we lost that [third] set, we came back and dominated the court [in the fourth set.]”
In the first of two games between the two teams this month, Strength said claiming the first match on home hardwood was crucial.
“The sport, the season, anything, it doesn’t matter, this rivalry is always going to be there and it’s really exciting,” Strength said. “Getting a win against them is a huge plus for our school because they have a good program, and on top of that you get those bragging rights for a little bit at least.”
For Lee-Scott, the loss served as a whiplash of sorts. Just five days prior, the Lady Warriors had defeated Opelika High School, a Class 6A team with a winning record, 3-2 on the road.
Lee-Scott head coach Brad Starks said Glenwood’s opportunistic nature made it difficult for his team to either come back or seal the deal late.
“I thought both teams played well, but volleyball is a game of runs, and their runs kind of came at the perfect time toward the end of sets,” Starks said. “You’re going to have unlucky moments, but you have to be able to bounce back from that. And then you also have to make the simple plays and not overthink the things that you’ve been doing since seventh grade and should almost be effortless.”
Starks said he believed the Lady Warriors were poised to break through as the area tournament and playoffs both loom, pointing to the win over Opelika as evidence.
“There are really large chunks of the game where we’re playing like a really good team,” Starks said. “We’re inexperienced, but we’ve got to get to the point where we stop telling ourselves we’re inexperienced. We’re well over halfway through the season and getting ready to look toward the playoffs, and we need to shake some of those ideals that maybe we’re not ready.”
The two teams faced off in a rematch in Auburn on Sept. 29. The Observer will have coverage of that game in the Oct. 8 edition.
Glenwood will travel to face Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School on Thursday, Oct. 1, at 5 p.m.
Lee-Scott also travels to Montgomery to take on Saint James School on Oct. 1 at 5:30 p.m.
