Gorillas sweep Reardan in three sets

REARDAN – A well-balanced attack propelled Davenport to a three set sweep over the Screaming Eagles Tuesday, Oct. 15. Selah Hupp, Naomi Rainwater and Chloe Hammond each notched ten or more kill shots in the Gorillas 25-20, 25-19, 25-21 win.

In the first set, Reardan opened up a 6-3 lead before the Gorillas ran off eight straight points to take an 11-6 lead. The dominance of front row players' Emersen Sprecher and Kaylynn Clouse brought the Screaming Eagles back, tying the game at 12 apiece.

The Gorillas went on a 10-0 run to cruise to a 25-20 win.

Reardan jumped to a 15-5 lead in the second set before the Gorillas' front row began pounding the ball over the net. Within minutes Davenport outscored Reardan 20-4 to take the second set 25-20.

The third set was tightly contested. After Reardan led 10-9, the Gorillas slowly pulled away behind the aggressive play of Rainwater, Hammond and Selah Hupp. In the waning minutes, Reardan pulled to within one point, but Davenport's strong finish sealed the 25-21 win.

Hammond, Rainwater and Selah Hupp led the Gorillas' attack with 13, 10 and 10 kills, respectively. Faith Bell was credited with 18 assists and Astraya Sosa had 15. Tatum Hupp led her team with 10 digs, followed by Selah Hupp, Bell, Hammond and Sosa, who each had six.

Emersen Sprecher led the Screaming Eagles' attack with 11 kills.

"We usually play better but the gym was super loud tonight, so I don't feel we communicated well." Hammond said. "One thing we did well at the net was we used the blockers hands on the other side to swipe the ball out-of-bounds to give us a point."

Hammond reserved special praise for Hupp. "She was always on the ground and played great tonight," she said.

Rainwater agreed.

"Tatum was digging up every ball tonight," Rainwater said. "She can dig up anything, even the hard back row attacks."

Though the Gorillas won, Rainwater was not satisfied with how her team played.

"We made a lot of mistakes and could definitely have done better, but a win is a win," Rainwater said. "I'm really excited for Senior Night (Oct. 29) at our place so we can crush them even better."

"We needed this," Davenport head coach Jill Morrison said. "Reardan is a huge rival of ours."

Morrison credited her team for their work ethic and commitment to winning.

"They deserve this win," Morrison said. "I am proud of them. They kept their cool and didn't let being behind 15-5 in the second set, bring them down. This win was a team effort. We practice as a team, we travel as a team, we play as a team, we win as a team and sometimes we lose as a team, so it's a team effort."

"This was definitely a tough loss, but I feel like the girls had a lot of wins from the loss," Reardan head coach Elise McCammonds said. "Instead of a loss I'd like to consider this a lesson learned and that lesson is that we need to be a little more scrappy."

McCammonds noted her players got down on themselves during Davenport's second set comeback.

"Our energy dropped and so did everything else," she said. "The amazing thing was that they continued to play amazing defense."

With the win, Davenport improved to 8-0 in NE2B play and remained tied with Freeman for first place. Reardan's record is 6-3 in league play and is in fourth place.

Davenport's next home game is at 12:30 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 19, against Jenkins (Chewelah). On the same date, the Screaming Eagles play at home against Northwest Christian at 1:30 p.m.