Clovis survives five-set battle with Roswell

CLOVIS — The Clovis volleyball team has learned a lot about itself over the past three weeks, and Thursday night against Roswell, the Wildcats learned some more.

Thursday’s lesson was how the Lady ’Cats can show poise when faced with unexpected adversity. They did so by surviving a tough Roswell team, 3-2, winning the fifth set after squandering a 2-0 lead.

They’d have preferred a sweep over Roswell, but knowing they didn’t get rattled in the 25-21, 25-20, 20-25, 20-25, 15-11 match is a pretty good night too.

“There’s nothing wrong with us learning how to get through a fifth game,” Clovis head coach Ruth Chavez said. “I mean, that’s tough, there’s a lot of pressure. And I think they did well, they played well. It was fun volleyball. They’re a fun team to watch.”

Clovis had to work hard all night Thursday.

“It was tough,” Kyli Osborn said after leading Clovis with 31 digs. “You win two, you lose the next two, then you have to dig deep for Game five, which is only to 15 (points). But Coach Chavez trained us to be a Game 5 team.”

“We always know that we’re going to win in the fifth game,” Lexi Cole said after ringing up 17 kills, seven blocks and two aces. “We get excited for fifth games because it’s what we work hard for every single day.”

Even in the first two sets, the Wildcats weren’t coasting, getting plenty to handle from Roswell. But they managed to reach 25 points both times.

The first set was actually tied at 15 before Cole thundered a dunk-style kill over the net to put the Wildcats ahead, and though the set remained close, they never relinquished the lead after that. Clovis polished it off on Sydni Hill’s serve, when Cole hit a return that richocheted off a Roswell player and out, giving the Wildcats a 25-21 victory.

The second set was tied three times early, but Clovis never trailed it and went on to win 25-20.

The Lady Coyotes then seemed to feed off that good start and led from then all the way until Clovis tied it at 17. Roswell went back up 18-17, a Cole kill tied it at 18, and Roswell then reeled off four straight points to take control, en route to another 25-20 win.

They were going to five.

“It’s definitely an energy-changer,” Cole said, “because winning two and then going back into losing two, you have to bring yourself back up and get re-focused and go back to the basics. And I just feel like our energy got up to that fifth game.”

“You have to have the mindset that you’re going to win,” Osborn said. “No balls hit the floor, you go for everything. If the other team gets the point, you just come back and tell yourself, ‘It’s going to be OK.’ And as a team you have to come together for each other.”

“I just told them that we’re playing a good team; Roswell has a very good team,” Chavez said. “And we had to serve more aggressive at them in order to take them out of their offense. We were allowing them to run their offense a little more than we hoped.”

Not so in the fifth set, when Clovis raced to a 5-0 lead that included two Kassidy Furrow kills and an ace from Hill. Clovis did have a few whiffs of trouble — when Roswell shaved a 12-7 difference to 12-10 and soon after trailed only 13-11.

But a Cole finisher earned the next point for Clovis, and after a good volley on the following point, a Roswell return sailed out. The Wildcats had survived.

“Getting more wins under our belt definitely helps win fifth games for us,” Cole said, “because we have more confidence in ourselves.”