ATTICA — Colonel Crawford and New London each entered Wednesday’s Division VI sectional final match with just one senior on the roster.
But, from there, the similarities ended.
The Lady Eagles have four juniors, five sophomores and five freshmen on the roster as well. The Wildcats, on the other hand, have juniors on the remainder of the roster, 10 in all.
The experience factor was certainly on the side of the Wildcats, and they took complete advantage, rolling to a 25-9, 25-7, and 27-25 win to claim the sectional crown.
With the win, New London (11-12) moves on to the Shelby district and will play Seneca East (13-10) on Monday at 7:30 p.m., the second game of the evening. Colonel Crawford finished its season at 4-19.
Colonel Crawford coach Jamie Valentine felt that playing in a big game will benefit her team in the long run.
“It gives them great experience, despite the fact that they are young,” Valentine said of her team. “We just don’t have a lot of experience.”
Valentine added that the game will continue to give her team a more mental approach.
“Games like this, and learning how to fight back, learning to be mentally tough throughout these processes; you continue to get experience with that, you are able to show up as an upper classman and put these types of games away,” Valentine added.
New London coach Sarah Thomas thought that her team’s win will continue to help them from a discipline aspect.
“What it does is teach us to have more discipline,” Thomas said. “We get in those situations and we kind of lose control of our bodies and ourselves. It teaches us mental focus, to keep our brain mentally focused on what’s happening and then helps us to control the game and be a little more disciplined in what we are doing.”
The Wildcats did a solid job at the net, taking the match to the smaller and young Lady Eagles.
The Wildcats top hitter, Pailee Wilson, led the way with 19 kills while running mate Gracie Thomas added nine. Crawford, on the other hand, got seven kills from freshman Emmie Powers.
“Our hitters did a great job tonight. Pailee (Wilson) is always one of our top hitters and our other middle stepped up tonight and did a great job,” Thomas said. “We did a great job of blocking and hitting out of the middle.
“So, we had a good night tonight,” she added.
New London started quickly, grabbing a 10-1 lead in the first game. The Lady Eagles cut the lead to 17-9 on kills from Powers and sophomore Sydney Rayborn, but the Wildcats were able to close out the game.
Crawford was able to tie the second game 5-5 on a kill from Camryn Powers before the Wildcats scored 20 of the final 22 points to seal the win.
The Lady Eagles were much more competitive in the third game, leading 13-12 on a Powers block.
Crawford also led a 22-21 and 23-22 on a pair of New London miscues. The game was tied at 25-25, sending it into overtime. But New London won the final two points and the match.
“That’s something that we have been talking about the entire week is just the mindset of where we need to be; especially be able to compete in games like that,” Valentine said of the fight in the third game. “I thought they showed a little bit of fight at the end, which was good.”