ADA – Temple Christian and Ada met on the opening night of Division IV volleyball tournament play Monday night at Ada.
The number three seeded Bulldogs knocked off the Pioneers 25-11, 25-9, and 25-8 and, as a result, get another home match Thursday night versus the winner of the McComb and Pandora-Gilboa match.
Ada simply had too many guns for the Pioneers to handle, and Ada was led by stand-out middle hitter Melina Woods who amassed 25 kills, five blocks, and two aces in the match.
Try as they might, and they tried mightily, Temple just didn’t have any answer for the power of Woods at the net.
The Bulldogs got off to somewhat of a slow start in the first game that might have been attributed to a change of pre-game activity.
“We are used to having a jayvee game before we play so we get settled in,” Ada coach Melissa Gossard said. “Tonight we just went out and played and it took a minute for us to get comfortable.”
Ada sped away from a 5-5 tie and jumped to leads of 13-7 and 16-8 before closing out the first game for a 25-11 win.
The Bulldogs had found their rhythm and jumped out to an 11-3 lead in the second game and methodically worked their way to a 25-9.
It was more of the same in the third game as Temple fell behind by scores of 8-1 and 13-2 before Ada closed out the match by taking the third game by a final margin of 25-8.
“We had to try to serve so that they couldn’t get the ball to Melina (Woods), but they did” Temple Christian coach Tim Acklin said. “We played pretty well, we lose six seniors who did their best; we wish the best to Ada.”
Besides the big night by Woods, the Bulldogs got seven kills by Megan Light. Maddie Gossard led the way for Ada with 12 digs while libero Olivia Alexander chipped in with 10 digs. Maddie Gossard had 24 assists and Sidney Gossard added 10 assists for the Bulldogs.
“We were a little out of focus early and we tried to get as many players involved as possible.” Coach Gossard said. “Morgan Swick steeped up for us when Raina England got hurt in that second game; she has been a jack of all trades for us this year.”
Temple Christian bows out with a record of 4-19 while Ada improves to 15-7 on the season.
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