Washington falls to Mt. Pleasant in four

Washington won a battle but lost the war.

For the first time this season, the Demon volleyball team came out on top of a set against Mt. Pleasant.

But it was the Panthers who walked away with the victory in the match once again, three sets to one, keeping themselves in the race for the Southeast Conference title.

?I thought tonight we were a lot scrappier, making great plays,? Mt. Pleasant head coach Luci Wulfekuhle said. ?We?re stepping it up in the second half ? they know that we have to keep fighting for the title.?

Mt. Pleasant (10-3 overall, 4-1 SEC) is behind only Class 4A No. 10 Fairfield (4-0 SEC) in the conference standings. They will play the Trojans next Tuesday, and will likely need a win to have a chance at the conference crown.

Last night, the Panthers won the first two games against Washington, 25-16 and 25-23.

They jumped out early in the first set and went up by as many as 11 points at 17-6.

The second set was much closer. Mt. Pleasant scored the first point, but Washington took a lead at 4-3. They held the advantage until the Panthers tied the score at 12. The score was tied again at 13, but Mt. Pleasant pulled away from there until they got to game point at 24-21. Washington avoided the loss with two consecutive kills by senior Sammy Ellingson, who finished with seven kills on the night, to make the score 24-23. However, the Panthers sealed the win when junior Taryne Shull tipped the ball over the net, out of reach of the Demons.

Once again, the Panthers had set themselves up for the sweep. But this time, Washington wasn?t going to let that happen.

The Panthers got the first point once again, but the Demons grabbed a lead at 6-5. Washington didn?t give up, even when the Panthers tied the score at 11, 12 and 13. Instead, the Demons regained the lead with three straight points and never looked back, taking the third set by a score of 25-22.

?We began to miss our serves and got stuck in serve receive runs,? Wulfekuhle said. ?The girls love to dig out of holes, and they tried their best, but we fell short.?

On the night, neither Stephanie Fishback nor Lauren Kimball missed a serve for Washington.

Strong serving was key for the Demons, who are at a noticeable height disadvantage when they take the court against the Panthers ? Washington?s tallest player stands 5-foot-8, and Mt. Pleasant has three that hit the 6-foot mark.

?It makes a really big impact,? said senior Elinor Krieger-Coble, one of those 6-foot Panthers, who led the team with 15 kills against Washington. Shull, another Mt. Pleasant player who stands 6-0, had a team-high eight blocks.

?We?re confident, we get big blocks up, and it helps us get the ball down (when we?re hitting),? Krieger-Coble said.

Mt. Pleasant sophomore Kelsi Phipps had 12 kills and three blocks on the night, and Shull added nine kills. Senior Linzie Hood had seven kills, and Krieger-Coble had three blocks.

Facing that formidable front row, Washington?s win was no easy task.

?It?s hard. Their blocking is so good,? Washington head coach Jeff Spenner said. ?But if you make the right approach and read them early, you can hit against them. In a couple games, I thought we played well and hit well, it was just that we had to be consistent about it.?

Consistency was key for both teams. The Panthers have struggled this season with ups and downs in their matches, but against the Demons last night, the Panthers maintained a steady level of play and did not allow themselves to get flustered.

Instead, they came back with another decisive win, 25-17, to end the match.

On the night, Ellingson led the Demons with 30 digs, and Fishback contributed 26. Fishback also topped the team with eight kills. Kimball had 25 assists in the match, and Sydney Hoffman put up three blocks.

For Mt. Pleasant, senior Lauren Hillman led the team with 16 assists and was 16-for-17 in serving with three aces. Junior Ashley Loving had 14 assists and senior Kathryn Chabal had 13 digs in the Panther win.

?[The victory over Washington] leaves us with only one loss, but we still need to beat Fairfield,? Wulfekuhle said. ?We need to win out, in three [sets].?

This win was a good start to the second round of conference play.

?Going into the match against Fairfield, we know we can win again,? Krieger-Coble said.

Mt. Pleasant now has a week off before the big game.

?We have four practices to really focus on what we can expect from them,? Wulfekuhle said.

Washington is now 8-10 overall and 1-4 in the SEC, and the Demons don?t have another game until Oct. 6.

?We have time to work on a lot of basics,? Spenner said.