By RYAN WALKER
Bluffton’s volleyball team had quite the night on Thursday.
For starters, it won the opening round of the sectional and upset a good Whitko (18-13) group 3-1 at The Tiger Den.
The Wildcats had been a thorn in the Tigers’ (10-19) side in recent memory, ending their season twice in the past four tournaments.
Bluffton head coach Stacy Morrison, who went through both of those losses, was thrilled to be on the winning side this time around.
“It was huge just to get that first win,” Bluffton head coach Stacy Morrison said after the game. “Whitko has beaten us in sectionals a couple times — at least when I’ve been coaching — so it was really nice. We knew they had some big hitters. We knew they were a tall team, so we knew we had to hit the spots and get after it, and I think that they did that.”
Secondly, Tiger libero Marly Drayer eclipsed the 1,000 mark for digs during the first set. The junior was one shy of the feat in the last regular season game at home.
The moment was spoiled as the Tigers could have stopped the regular season game to honor her but remained stuck at 999. Since it was a postseason game when she got it, they couldn’t stop the match.
The team celebrated after the game with a sign shaped like a volleyball, a real-life volleyball with her name on it, a gift bag, and a photo with the team.
Morrison knew hitting the milestone wouldn’t be an issue, but the moment was just as special.
“She is just a workhorse,” Morrison said. “She’s so easy to coach, and she just hustles and gets after it. She was actually only one short dig on our last home game, and we tried so hard to get that, … We were playing for her, and I’m so proud of her for working so hard to get that 1,000th dig, especially as a junior.”
Through all the festivities, the Tigers continued to carry their momentum from the end of the season. The team had been peaking at the right time, playing its best ball, and keeping the energy while playing as a team.
During the first set, Bluffton was playing through a deficit early. As soon as Drayer hit 1,000, the team’s energy erupted and propelled them through the rest of the night.
The set was back-and-forth, and Whitko had a 23-22 lead before the Tigers scored three in a row to snatch Game 1.
Bluffton dropped a hard-fought second but kept it from ruining its will to win. No matter the circumstance, Morrison’s group wasn’t going to go away.
“It’s one of the things we’ve been working on,” Morrison said. “Sometimes, Bluffton, if they have a few mistakes, they want to just quit. We’ve really been working on drills and strategies to say ‘OK, what do we do in this situation? So we’ll have a deficit where I’ll put them in high-stress situations at practice to force them to deal with it.”
The third set is where the match was won for Bluffton.
The two teams kept the seesaw battle going, but Bluffton suddenly found another spark of life when Haley Gibson, from her knees, tipped the ball over the net on a quick reaction play. It was to the Wildcats’ surprise and fell for a Tigers’ point on the other side.
The point helped a run that wrapped up a 25-17 win to go up 2-1.
From Gibson’s play forward, Bluffton leaned on Whitko enough to win the final set 25-18 for the win.
Bluffton will advance to the sectional semi-final against No. 5 South Adams at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be played at Bluffton.
Stat leaders for the night were Maryn Schreiber with 11 kills and four stuff blocks, Haley Gibson with 30 assists, Marly Drayer with five aces, and Isabella Stout with 16 digs.
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