'Stangs overcome 2-week break, Overland

AURORA -- They had not played a match in two weeks, it showed in multiple ways and they were glad to get to it.

Even with a slow start, Mullen fought through and handled host Overland 18-25, 25-22, 25-21, 25-16 to complete the regular season of the Centennial League. Next will be three matches in what is called the Centennial Challenge in which the eight loop teams are seeded and play will last into next week, the final slot of the regular season for four of the five classifications.

Mullen is 8-8 overall and finished 2-5 in league. The Mustang ended in sixth place. The seeds for the Centennial teams in the challenge rounds, in order, are Grandview, Eaglecrest, Cherokee Trail, Cherry Creek, Arapahoe, Mullen, Overland (5-11, 1-6) and Smoky Hill.

The Mustangs will host Cherokee Trail on Tuesday, Oct. 22, 6:30 p.m., at Hutchison Fieldhouse to begin the series that also will include matches on Thursday, Oct. 24, and Thursday, Oct. 31.

But back to Tuesday’s match … it was a relief for the Mustangs to actually be involved with competition.

“We started really slowly and we hadn’t played in a while, but we kind of got warmed up as the night went on,” Mustangs head coach Jeff Oliver said. “We didn’t have much energy to start, there was no school today and it changed our pattern, but I think we did a great job stepping up as the night went on.”

Among those who did was senior Sydney Wills. The outside hitter caught the coach’s eye with eight key kills and among all-around play.

“So,” Wills said, “when we came out (two weeks ago) after going off our losing streak (eight matches, halted with a victory over Smoky Hill), we had to come out with a fire and just play our hardest. Losing the first set was hard. We needed to play like we were practicing. We had to come out and play as a team, and things would fall into place.”

They did. After being tied at 6, the Trailblazers pulled away to take the first game, but Mullen used a late move to grab Game 2. A hot start serving by junior Kiley Lawrence sparked a 6-0 lead in Game 3 and the Mustangs generally dominated in Game 4.

Macy Schiefelbein added nine kills, Katie Hammond and Henri Rasmussen each had a couple of blocks, and Molly Zink (19) and Wills (14) were tops in digs.

Said Oliver: “It just felt good to get things going again … that was a l-o-o-o-o-n-g time to be off.”