ROME, GA— An aggressive attack, opportunistic moments at the net and shifting momentum marked both contests for the Rome Wolves volleyball team on Tuesday night at Rome High as the Wolves topped Lakeview-Fort Oglethorpe before falling to Armuchee in the second game.
New Rome coach Scott Carter, who took over the program in the spring, talked about positives and negatives from the team’s action on Tuesday that moved their overall mark on the season to 3-1 after Tuesday’s games.
“I don’t think we played great against LFO. I think what we are trying to do right now is to get these guys to understand how to play the game in the proper sequence. That sequence is see the game, process the game and play the game,” Carter said. “We have a very athletic team. We have kids that can move fast, they jump high and are just very athletic. The problem with that is if they play the game by going on the floor and just being athletic, they’re going to get challenged by teams that are consistent and that are engaged with their intellect.”
Rome’s athleticism showed through in its contest against LFO as the Warriors and the Wolves battled in a see-saw contest in the first set. Only one point separated the squads with Rome leading 15-14 before Jermiya Winston pounded a winner past two LFO players. Rome’s Annalee Reeder took over serving duties and promptly ran off four-straight points.
Sophomore Mackenzie Hight came alive in the string of serves, as she pounded three kills. Those powerful hits along with an ace from Reeder, staked Rome to a 20-14 lead. LFO tried to rally, but Rome finished out the first set, winning 25-19.
Rome’s big surge in the second set came when Maddie Oates took over service with the Wolves leading 16-11.
Rome ran off seven straight points during the span, including four aces from Oates as well as two kills from Winston to take a commanding 24-11 lead before eventually winning the set 25-16 and the match.
While the Wolves handled the Warriors, Carter talked about the need for his charges to not just rely on their athleticism.
“We are trying to get to a place right now where our players understand they are going to have to bring
something from the neck up as well as from the neck down. That’s where we are stuck a little bit right now,” Carter said. “I don’t think we did that well against LFO. I think that we are more athletic than they are.”
The second match presented a bigger challenge as Armuchee brought a talented team to the court. The opening set featured a truly back and forth affair with 12 ties and five lead changes before the visiting Indians prevailed 25-23.
Rome had moments with Donovan Fruland recording four kills, but the Wolves could never grab enough momentum to wrest control of the contest from Armuchee.
“Coming out of that match (against LFO) I wasn’t super happy because I don’t think we were intellectually engaged. I told them that we need to bring that piece to this, and we did in the second set (against Armuchee),” Carter said. “In the first set, we played more athletic, and it was tight. We had our chance to win. In the second set, we were locked in and engaged. We were seeing the game well and we were processing the game well. Our decision making was very efficient, and the score indicated that.”
The Wolves seemed to be hitting on all cylinders athletically and intellectually in the second set against Armuchee. After Fruland recorded a kill to knot the score at five, Chetta Dodge took over serving duties and helped the Wolves run off an impressive 10-straight points.
During the run, Rome played solid with excellent passing and serving, and Fruland took advantage of it by recording five kills during that time. Dodge also added two aces, as the run put Rome on top 15-5. Jada Johnson added a couple of kills later in the set, as the Wolves closed it out to win 25-13.
Another key player for the Wolves in both matches was Hunter Mcfarland, who constantly dug out vicious spikes and serves to allow her teammates to rally and attack.
“When we play with a high level of intellect and visual understanding, and we are seeing the right things and making efficient decisions, we are hard to beat. When you combine that with our athleticism you see the outcome being lopsided scores,” Carter said. “But any team can come in here that is able to play the game at a high level. If they provide consistency and intellect, we tend to want to fall back on what I call chaotic at times.
That’s when people put pressure on you, and you just try to out athlete them. Things get really chaotic, and the foundation crumbles really quick as you saw in set three.”
The third set saw the Indians take advantage of a couple of early miscues to grab a lead and never look back. Rome managed to score a few points late with kills from Winston and Fruland, but the Indians had built too much of an advantage and capitalized on the momentum to win the set 15-5 and the match. And while the second match didn’t go as planned, Carter said it’s a great teaching tool for the team as they begin the long road of the 2022 season.
“I think we’re in a good place in the season. We’re 3-1. The bottom line is I’m not mad that we lost. They got beat by a team that is more focused than us and more consistent than us. I think that in the long run that loss will be good for us,” Carter said. “To experience that and to feel that will hopefully them to buy into what we are talking about. Because they realize the way they want to fall back on is not going to work in those situations. I think this will hopefully catapult us forward in terms of buy-in.”
Getting the buy-in is something Carter has been working on in the off-season and continues to do during matches, pointing out moments where the Wolves could maybe take a step back and think more before making the play.
He also said it’s going to be vital as the season progresses and the Wolves get into the thick of Region 6-6A action.
“Our region is tough. The bottom line is that we play in a region where all of the other players play volleyball year-round. And a lot of them play for one of the most successful volleyball clubs in the country,” Carter said.
“I think we are preparing ourselves to progressively be ready to play those teams. That’s part of the schedule we’ve put together. There are going to be bumps in the road. We will come back tomorrow and fix some things that didn’t go well today and put some new things in place and move forward.”
And the Wolves will move forward with a lesson learned and a prime example of what their coach is saying as well as the memory of a set where when they listened to the coach, everything fell into place.
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