By PATRICK DOLAN
ThisWeek Staff Writer
GRANVILLE -- The Big Walnut High School girls volleyball team rallied from a two-game deficit against Uhrichsville Claymont in a Division II regional semifinal Thursday, only to fall in five games.
The Golden Eagles lost 25-21, 25-16, 27-29, 22-25, 15-10 to finish 22-4. Claymont, ranked seventh in the final state poll, improved to 24-1 and advanced to play Hartley in the regional final at 2 p.m. Saturday at Granville.
"It's really tough," coach Ron Lehman said. "I'm proud of the girls. They battled back, won those two games, but we just couldn't quite get it done in game five, unfortunately."
Big Walnut nearly lost in three games, as it faced match point in the third game at 26-25. But opposite hitter Sammie Ebright tied the game at 26 with a kill and the Golden Eagles went on to win the game.
The Golden Eagles had the momentum after winning the fourth game, but they couldn't sustain it. Though they led 2-1 early in the fifth game, Claymont went on a 6-1 run to open a 7-3 advantage. The Mustangs would not relinquish the lead.
The contest was reminiscent of Big Walnut's match against Pickerington North on Sept. 22, as the Golden Eagles forced a fifth game after trailing two games to none, only to lose 25-18, 25-18, 25-27, 22-25, 16-14.
"It happened earlier this year against Pickerington North," libero Tayler Nance said. "We hoped this (match) would have a different outcome, but it didn't. But we tried our hardest."
Claymont was led by outside hitter Makenzie Ripley, who had 34 kills, including 17 in the first two games.
"We had scouted her ahead of time and knew she was a good player, so we set up our blocks to try to slow her down and stop her if we could," Lehman said. "For some reason, we weren't very successful the first two games. We really didn't change anything after that. We just started doing a better job and were able to block a couple of her shots. We knew coming in that was something we had to do, and we did a better job of it later in the match."
"We knew she was their all-around player," Nance said. "We tried to get three blocks up on her, but she came out and was a whole different person and we had to adjust our blocks. She digs, she hits out of the back row effectively, she hits in the front row effectively and she blocks."
Ebright led the Golden Eagles with 16 kills. Middle hitter Eleni Lourgos and outside hitter Jazmine Reed had 12 and 10 kills, respectively.
Big Walnut played the match without middle hitter Emma Swysgood, who was sidelined because of illness.
"She's probably our No. 1 middle (hitter), so that hurt not having her," Lehman said. "But the rest of the kids played well. Eleni and (middle hitter) Kayleigh (Sutherland) had some really nice hits out there."