By RAY BENTON
Leader sports editor
What would a Jacksonville-Sylvan Hills matchup be without a little controversy? On Tuesday, when the Lady Bear volleyball team hosted the Lady Titans, officiating left both sides frustrated at times, but a late and controversial call in game five went Sylvan Hills’ way, and Jacksonville did not recover.
Final scores in the match were 25-22, 20-25, 25-16, 21-25 and 16-14 for the Lady Bears.
The two rivals battled to a 2-2 tie, but Jacksonville had all the momentum in game five until the very end. The Lady Titans served first, and scored four-straight points in the race-to-15 tiebreak set. Sophomore Blair Jones, usually a setter, had two kills to start the game before Sylvan Hills hit long and Titan sophomore Chandee Wesley aced the Lady Bears for a 4-0 lead.
After a Sylvan Hills timeout, Lady Bear Grace Turner got a kill, but Jacksonville broke right back and then made it 6-1 with back-to-back kills by Aaliyah Burks. Jacksonville still led 13-8, needing just two points for the match, when things began to unravel.
A serve into the net gave Sylvan Hills the ball trailing 13-9. Wesley, also a setter, hit wide on a kill attempt. Sylvan Hills’ Paris Penn then appeared to hit long, which would’ve made it 14-10 Jacksonville. But the call was overruled; with the head official ruling the ball was touched at the net on the block attempt.
With the score 13-11 and Sylvan Hills’ Cory Tessman serving, Jacksonville committed three-straight unforced errors to give the Lady Bears a 14-13 lead.
Jacksonville’s Brittney Eskridge finally broke the run with kill that tied it up, but Sylvan Hills scored the next point on another Jacksonville mistake.
Senior libero Lindsey Holt made a diving dig of a hard hit by Sylvan Hills’ Aliya Hatton, and her pass floated perfectly to the front of the net, but no one from Jacksonville set the ball, letting it drop to the floor for a 15-14 Lady Bear lead.
For the final point, Turner, as she did frequently throughout the match, found an empty spot in the Jacksonville defense for a tip kill to seal the victory.
“I am never going to blame officiating for a loss,” said Jacksonville coach Savannah Jacoby. “The girls know that. At the same time, they are teenage girls. They play so much with their emotions. They felt like someone was trying to take it away from them. They have to learn to put it behind and focus on the next point. We just didn’t do a very good job of that tonight.
“Other than that, I am so, so proud of the way they fought tonight and have stuck together this season. They’ve faced so much adversity and they have really pulled together. They’re going to get better from here.”
Sylvan Hills has been a team battling adversity as well, especially in team chemistry. Lady Bear coach Harold Treadway sees this win as a potential turning for his team.
“If they want to make it one, it can be,” Treadway said. “This is really the first time this year we’ve put together a good effort and beaten a quality team. We showed tonight that we’re capable of playing much better than we have been. If they’ll look at that and learn from it, we have a chance to start becoming a really good team.”
Jacksonville also led 20-16 in game one before the Lady Bears closed with a 9-2 run, including the last five in a row after Jacksonville led 22-20. It started with a Turner kill to break serve. Freshman Riley Parker took serve for the Bears and a miss-hit tied it and forced a Jacoby timeout.
Turner got a block out of the break. Parker’s next serve was passed out of bounds, and the freshman delivered an ace to finish off game one.
Game two was a reversal. Sylvan Hills got out early before Jacksonville stormed back. The Lady Bears (6-6, 6-2) led 13-9 before Jacksonville scored 10 in a row, the longest run in the match by either team. It started with a kill by Basia Brown that made it 13-10 and sent Wesley to the service line for Jacksonville. She served two aces while Burks and Brown had a kill apiece to go with several long hits by the Lady Bears.
Sylvan Hills fought back to within 22-20, but Jacksonville scored the last three on three-straight kills by Eskridge.
Sylvan Hills scored seven in a row in game three for a 10-4 lead. Sophomore Graemme Withrow served an ace to go with three kills by Tessman during the rally. Jacksonville scored the next two points, but was never closer than five the rest of the way.
Game four was nip-and-tuck until the very end. Sylvan Hills jumped out to a 7-2 lead but Jacksonville (3-7, 3-3) battled back to within 8-7 shortly thereafter. Neither team led by more than two points until Jacksonville scored the last three in a row to end the game.
Turner had given the Lady Bears the ball trailing 21-22, but Anna Snyder served into the net. Holt took serve for Jacksonville, and just like in game two, back-to-back kills by Eskridge sealed the game and set up the tiebreak set.
Turner led the Lady Bears with 14 kills while Tessman added seven and Lydia Young had five. Turner also had a team-high four aces while Parker finished with 19 assists.
Eskridge led all players with 15 kills. Jones added eight while Burks and Brown recorded six apiece. Wesley had team highs with five aces and 13 assists. Jones added 10 assists and three aces.