The Hampton-Dumont-CAL volleyball team overcame some cold stretches that led to a 2-1 deficit, and defeated Clarion-Goldfield-Dows in five sets on the road Thursday, a match that aired on 104.9 KLMJ. The Bulldogs won by set scores of 25-21, 19-25, 19-25, 25-17, 15-8. It had been nearly eight years since the last time the Bulldogs defeated the Cowgirls on October 13, 2016.
The first set was the closest of the night. Trailing 19-17, the Bulldogs scored eight of the final 10 points to secure the win. After trailing 20-12 in set 2, HDCAL fought back to make it 22-18 before the Cowgirls tied it at 1-1. In set 3, the Cowgirls scored the first nine points on their way to a commanding set. CGD had set point at 24-13, but the Bulldogs scored six straight to build momentum that they never let slip away. HDCAL took command in set 4, and surged to the win in the fifth set.
“I think it says a lot about their character and just their drive to win,” Head Coach Sarah Miller says. “Clearly we started off great, like we typically do, and then unfortunately Set 2 is just not working in our favor. So after Set 2, made a couple changes and then here comes Set 3, didn’t produce what we needed to. And so unfortunately, I had to make some hard decisions and just change some things up big time, but it was definitely a team effort and these girls really come together and they put their hearts in it and got the job done.”
Senior outside hitter Aubryee Showalter led with 20 kills, and in the process recorded her 100th career ace.
“We know what we have to do, sometimes it just takes us a little bit to get there,” Showalter says. “When we were down, I think going into the fourth set we really knew that we had to kick it up and we got a little bit of momentum coming out of that third set with our backs against the wall. I think that helped us just moving forward and get the win tonight. It’s pretty crazy, we know we wanted to beat Humboldt and we didn’t quite get that under our belt. So I think coming out here and beating Clarion after all these years is definitely going to help us get more conference games this season.”
Abby Drier had 23 digs and Aubree Gronewold had 25 assists.
Clarion-Goldfield-Dows was led by Elliott Ennis with 16 kills.
Hampton-Dumont-CAL (3-1, 2-1 NCC) will return to action Saturday at a tournament at Belmond-Klemme. Clarion-Goldfield-Dows (2-5, 0-2 NCC) will be at a tournament at #4 (2A) South Hardin Saturday.
Sarah Miller interview:
Abby Drier and Aubryee Showalter interview:
