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Clay City works through lineup changes in loss to North Daviess
It was anyone's game through the first two sets of Thursday night’s Southwestern Indiana Athletic Conference volleyball showdown between Clay City and North Daviess.
The pair of conference unbeatens split the first and second sets, winning by identical scores of 25-23, making it a best-of-three match the rest of the way.
And in each of the third and fourth sets, the host Eels looked to have a strong opportunity to grab ahold of the momentum and inch themselves closer to sole possession of first place in the conference standings. However, multiple long runs by North Daviess turned the tide in a hurry, leading to a 3-1 loss for Clay City that snapped its three-game winning streak.
Clay City head coach Asieavae Jeffers said she wasn’t disappointed or even all that frustrated with the way Thursday’s match ended. The reason? Clay City lost starting setter Kelli Riggs to a concussion recently, pushing multiple players into new roles on the team, and with little practice since then, it’s forced the team to learn a new setup on the fly.
“There’s still a lot of positives to take from tonight,” said Jeffers. “We’re still getting better every game while working different rotations because our setter is out. They’ve done a great job stepping into roles they’ve never done before. We’ve been running this for two games now without any practice time in between, so it makes it difficult to get those types of things hammered out.”
While the changes in the rotation have been something each of the Eels have had to deal with, there are two members of the team that have been most affected.
The first? Gracie Oberholtzer.
With Riggs sidelined, Jeffers needed a new setter to step into her shoes. The first-year head coach asked if anyone had any experience in that position, and Oberholtzer, who spent her first three seasons as an outside hitter before transitioning into the libero role this fall, was one of the first to raise her hand and volunteer to give it a try.
Jeffers has liked what she’s seen from Oberholtzer. And even though she’ll be moving back to a more familiar place in the lineup for Clay City once Riggs is back in the mix, her willingness – and effectiveness while doing it – to shift to setter is something Jeffers will keep in mind should something happen down the road.
“Gracie has actually played setter before, but it was a very long time ago. She moved away from that position over the years, but as one of our senior leaders, we know she can read the floor very well. That’s probably her biggest strength, and as a setter, you need that skill,” said Jeffers of Oberholtzer. “When she offered to do it, we jokingly were like, ‘All right, let’s do it.’ And then after seeing her do it, we were like, 'Ok. This is actually plausible.’”
The other Lady Eel thrust into a new spot on the floor? Ellie Stoelting.
The sophomore spent the first few games of the season playing both junior varsity and varsity in the back row. But with her athleticism, as well as being a defensive whiz in the outfield on the softball field, Jeffers thought Stoelting would be a strong option to move to libero with her ability to track the ball. That was on display for most of Thursday’s loss to North Daviess, said Jeffers.
“Ellie is a tracking pro. I mean, she moves and she hustles and she tracks the ball so well. Her aggressiveness and want to have the ball come to her has been the biggest change for us,” said Jeffers of Stoelting. “There might have been one or two tonight that she let drop, which is totally ok when you’re out there hustling the whole time, and she was still hustling the whole time.”
With so many moving parts, which also includes a variety of players moving in and out of the rotation as Clay City looks to settle its lineup, Jeffers said finding consistency is of the utmost importance moving ahead into the middle of the year. She’s confident that will continue to happen, especially after taking on a team like North Daviess.
“It’s about consistency and about honing in on our skills right now,” Jeffers said. “North Daviess has a very fast-paced offense, and this was the first time we’d seen an offense that was that fast and that aggressive. So, getting to see that and take that head on and adjust was something we can take and use to prepare before we start heading into sectionals.”