CHARLOTTESVILLE — Eastern Hancock middle hitter Lili Hunt saw her opening on Thursday night and hammer down a perfectly placed kill, straight through a row of Monroe Central blockers.
The point tied the Royals’ second set 14-14, but while there were moments of precision, unfortunately, there weren’t enough.
Thought they tied the visiting Golden Bears multiple times in all three sets, the Royals struggled to find a way to breakthrough, falling in three, 25-17, 25-21, 25-21.
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At 5-13 on the season, nothing has come easy for the Royals, but no more so than at the end of games.
“That’s the story of our season,” Eastern Hancock head coach Cory Rainbolt said. “At the beginning of the season, we were playing five sets, four sets, five sets, but we couldn’t finish it off.”
Against Mid-Eastern Conference foe Monroe Central, the theme resumed and it hurt the Royals, who showed their resilience despite facing defeat.
After the Golden Bears (11-8, 2-4 MEC) ran away in the first set behind a 7-1 run to cap their win, the Royals turned an eight-point second-set deficit into a 14-14 tie on Hunt’s kill.
Hunt led an 11-3 Royals’ rally with a trio of kills, and Eastern Hancock seized the lead 18-15 before the Golden Bears regrouped with a 21-21 tie and a 4-0 run down the stretch.
Hunt finished with a team-high 11 kills, 17 digs and five assists.
“Against Southwestern (on Sept. 17), we finally had a five-set match that we won (3-2), and I thought that was a turning point, but then we turned around and we had Cowan and some of the other bigger Munciana schools. We just can’t finish it off,” Rainbolt said. “We just haven’t been able to put the ball down. We have lots of attempts, but we just can’t get the ball down.”
Hunt and fellow junior Sydni Bednarski (five kills) tried their best, but without sophomore middle hitter Emma Bolding on the court, the Royals had a difficult time.
Bolding suffered an ankle injury during the team’s win over Southwestern, and she remains sidelined for the interim.
“She’s a rotation player for us that’s pretty key, especially in the front row. She’s got a great vertical, so she gets touches on some of those balls that we didn’t get touches on tonight,” Rainbolt said. “It will be good to get her back soon. We do miss her when she’s not in there.”
Bolding was missed in the third set as both teams tied four times before Monroe Central closed the game out on a 4-2 run to win.
The Royals’ defense challenged Monroe Central’s top-two hitters in Alexandra McGrath and Sami Farmer with 17 digs from Megan Retherford. Eastern Hancock’s Emma Weiss added 13 digs, and sophomore setter Sydney Hayes had seven assists on offense.
“We’ve made huge strides. I know it doesn’t seem like it stat wise, but we have,” Rainbolt said. “But, if you can’t pass the ball, you can’t do much of anything else. So, that’s what we’ve concentrated a lot on.”
The offense generated a 6-0 rally in the third set to erase the Golden Bears’ 12-8 lead, but after tying the match 17-all, the Royals didn’t have much left to force a fourth set.
“As a team, we’ve gotten a lot better. It’s that we just can’t finish it off,” Rainbolt said. “I told the girls, at some point, we’re going to have to take the court with some fire and some spark. Until we do that, we’re just going to continue doing what we’re doing.”
The Royals, who fell to 2-6 in the MEC, won’t have much time to dwell, as they host their own Eastern Hancock Invitational on Saturday that includes Purdue Poly and Frankton.
“Just a few more steps quicker out there, and we’ll get there,” Rainbolt said. “I told them, volleyball is a game of speed. It’s fun. It’s power. We just have to keep working.”
