ORWELL —
The Grand Valley Mustangs have suddenly gone on a long-awaited winning streak. It hasn’t been easy, but steady play and taking advantage of gifts has been a huge aid. They won their third-straight match Tuesday night by taking leads early and then hanging on before finishing strong as they defeated Bristol in five games, 25-20, 25-16, 27-29, 24-26, and 15-9.
The triumph was the third in a row for GV (5-8, 4-4 in Northeastern Athletic Conference). As has been the case lately, solid defense, opportune passing and the steady power game of Thommie Jackson in the middle has led the way as GV has dispatched Pymatuning Valley, Champion and now Bristol over the last week.
“I thought we had some communication breakdowns starting near the end of the second game tonight that carried over to the third and fourth games,” Mustang coach Kelly Henson said. “We kind of went into cruise control there. Do I think the girls were thinking the match was won? It could be, but we came back strong in the middle of the fourth game, and that momentum carried over into the fifth game as well.”
Mistakes haunted the Panthers (5-12, 2-7 in NAC) all night, especially when they fought back to make things close.
“We played hard all night tonight,” coach Scott Jones said. “We’ve had problems with bad starts all year, though, and it happened again tonight.”
Thommie Jackson keyed the win for the Mustangs from all over the court. She served up 19 points, dominated the nets with a 52 of 59 effort spiking with 25 kills, generously spread all over the court, and she tossed in five perfect dinks for good measure. Her spiking paced the first two game’s successes for GV, but as she seemed to tire a bit, a tough assault for the Panthers, led by sophomore Olivia Pilon, helped Bristol get into a few stretches where they got the ball to the floor for points and GV had no responses.
The fourth game may have proved to be the pivotal game of the match for GV.
“After we lost the momentum, I was glad to see the girls work so hard to get it back late in that fourth game,” Henson said. “Even though we lost, we were down and came back to extend it, and that energy boost carried over into the fifth game for us.”
In the fourth game, a nine-point run, paced by eight of those points from Katie Jackson, gave the Panthers a 17-8 lead. Five points in a row served up by Thommie Jackson, though, cut the lead to 24-23 before a Steph Markowitz kill and then two more in a row from Pilon sealed the contest and set up the fifth game.
But with Melina Ellsworth serving up a 4-0 lead in the last game, fueled by a pair of Thommie Jackson blocks and a slam, Bristol just didn’t have enough gas left to hold the fort.
“I can’t say enough about how Olivia Pilon has played for a sophomore,” Jones said. “She’s developed faster than I thought was possible.”
Kelly is a freelance writer from Jefferson.
Click here to subscribe to The Star Beacon print edition.
Click here to subscribe to The Star Beacon replica edition.
