SIMON KENTON HIGH SCHOOL PIONEER VOLLEYBALL: Momma Knows Best

The Neers headed to Hebron for a match-up with the Conner Cougars after a set of nice emotional wins last night against perhaps their biggest rivals. Tonight ‘s game had its own storyline as mother meets daughter on the court as Coach Andrea Atwood was coaching against her daughter’s team, freshman Deandra Atwood for the Cougars.

The Conner hex seemed to be in play for the younger Neers as the Freshman and JV teams took it on the chin to the Cougars. The freshman went down by scores of 19-21, 21-17 and 14-21. Jessica McDonald served 17 points and 5 aces and Alley Niehaus notched 6 kills. Serve receive errors were the Neers nemesis as they were only successful with 44%, 59% and 26%. The JV came out in the first set and jumped out to a big lead. Conner would regroup and come back although SK held on for the 21-18 lead. Conner would reverse the score in the second set as they came out on top by the same score. The third set saw the JV’ers fall down big with a late rally that came up short as they fell 14-21.

While there was excitement of mother on one side and daughter on the other for the varsity match, the Neers came out flat. The Cougars were scrappy but many of their points were coming off SK miscues. It is always tough coming off an emotional win like last night and this looked to be the case tonight. Conner led for much of the first set but the Neers played tough down the stretch. The game was tied at 23 but SK scores the final two points for the 25-23 win.

Little Sally Walker showed up between the two sets as the team broke into song and dance. Coach Atwood crashed the circle and took her turn. No photo evidence to prove it though. The girls seemed to loosen up after the routine and came out in the set and jumped out to a 3-0 lead. SK would lead by as many as 7 and held on for a 25-19 win, preserving a match win for the program where the varsity team has struggled for W’s in recent years. SK's varsity record moves out to 15-3 for the season.

Some stats for the night, birthday girl Kaitlin Murray had 6 Kills, 2 aces, 4 digs, Sophie Dunn had 18 assists, 2 aces, Amarah Nicholson had 6 blocks and Haley Robinson had 5 kills, 2 blocks.

After the match, the team celebrated Coach Atwood’s 100^th SK win with a surprise cake out in the Conner hallway ; good time had by all.

The Neers will be back to the friendly confines of the Joe tomorrow night as the Pendleton Wildcats head north for the match.

A very impressive night of play for the Conner Atwood.