Hobo coach Kasey Campbell had a simple explanation for her team faltering.
“They got tired,” she said. “They got gassed. We went with the six strongest that we thought were good.
“They got tired and got sloppy and beat themselves. Tomorrow they will be running in practice and then we will be going into volleyball.”
The teams battled back and forth in the early part of the first set. Raelee McDonald was in serve as the Hoboes scored the first point of the night. Laurel Hill scored off a Bella Gibson serve a few minutes later to go up 3-1.
The score was tied at 5-5 when Laramie Boykin took over in serve for Laurel Hill. The Hoboes reeled of five straight points with Boykin in serve to take control of the set. Boykin ended the run with a service ace.
Laurel Hill was able to maintain the 5-point advantage as Rylee Boddy served. Later, back-to-back aces by Kennedi Kilpatrick made it 22-16 in favor of Laurel Hill as the Hoboes cruised to the win in the first set.
The Hobo positives were faded as the night progressed.
Laurel Hill fell behind early in set two but rallied behind the serving of Boddy and Hannah Twitty to go in front 16-11. Jay finished the set on a 14-3 run.
The Royals carried the momentum into the next two sets as the Royals moved on to the win.
Campbell did see some positives to take out of the match. Most notably, she saw improvement from the night before when Laurel Hill lost to Rocky Bayou Christian.
“They did a lot better job tonight than they did last night at Rocky Bayou talking, reading the hitters and getting into their spots,” she said. “We had a lot of standing around our first game and we did a better job of getting down and getting to where they were going tonight.”
