GREENTOWN When it mattered most Tuesday night, Easterns volleyball team was dialed in.

The Comets won the first two games against visiting Kokomo, then errors crept into Easterns game and Kokomos serving got sharper. The VolleyKats won games three and four to even the match and set up a decisive fifth set.

Thats when Eastern responded. The Comets took a 9-8 lead when middle hitter Hailey Holliday floored a Kokomo overpass and the Comets never trailed again, finishing off a 25-19, 26-24, 23-25, 19-25, 15-11 victory over Kokomo.

I think we finally dug deep and decided not to let up, Eastern coach Missy Mavrick said. We have a bad habit of letting up. Once we get ahead we feel comfortable, and we decided to make sure we kept pushing that [fifth] set.

Holliday and Isabel Kelly each floored 13 kills to lead the Comets and Bailey Johnson added seven kills. Each of those net players came up with important finishes in the fifth set. Johnson had three kills including a tip kill on an overpass to end the match and scored on a block. Holliday had three kills and Kelly two.

I thought our hitters played really well at the net, Mavrick said. I thought we saw the floor really well, all the way around, all of our hitters. Weve still got some kinks to work out in the back row, thats really the key to our offense is weve got to be able to pass better than what were passing. Once we fix one thing weve got to keep being aggressive and not let something else fall apart.

Kokomo had done damage in the third and fourth sets with effective service, especially from Alliyah Hochstedler and Kylee Lauderbaugh. As the fifth set played out, the service rotation worked out ideally for the Kats as Hochstedler and Lauderbaugh were Kokomos last two servers. But neither got on a run.

A strong Hochstedler serve almost aced the Comets but the home team recovered and scored on a Johnson block for a 13-10 lead. Then after a Kokomo point, Lauderbaughs serve was fielded cleanly and Kelly smoked a kill for a 14-11 lead. Johnson settled the match on the next point.

We really made sure that on receive on those two girls that we stayed focused and make sure that we pushed to get the ball back, Mavrick said.

To illustrate how much cleaner Easterns play was in the decisive set, look at the errors. In the third set, Kokomo scored points on 14 Eastern attack, serve or technique errors. The Comets gave up eight more points in the fourth game on their own errors. In the fifth set, Eastern gave away just one point via a service error and the Kats had to earn all their other points that set.

On the other side, errors took a toll.

We had a lot of momentum going into the fifth set we had all the momentum, but our inexperience in those situations showed its head with hitting errors and kind of playing safe instead of playing to win, Kokomo coach Jason Watson said.

We had five hitting errors, two serve receive errors and a block error. Thats eight of their 15 points were directly points that we give them.

When the Kats (1-6) served well, they had the advantage, but early when they struggled, serving was the problem.

Early on we struggled serving, Watson said. In the first and second set, our serving cost us in my opinion the match. At one point we missed four out of five serves and you cant beat anybody with that lack of consistency.

Gabby Cooper led the Kat attack with 16 kills, and added seven digs. Chiara Minor had 11 kills and Hochstedler had seven kills and 14 digs. Lauderbaugh finished with 41 assists, 12 digs, four kills from her setter spot and six aces. Molly Fisher added seven digs and Madison Wood six.

I liked our energy and I think we definitely have a lot to build on, Watson said.

Maci Weeks had 25 assists and Grace Kuhlman had 16 for the Comets (3-3). Casey Clark had 31 serve receives and 25 digs. Torie Bratcher served 11 points and 16 serve receives.

I thought Hailey Holliday did a great job, Mavrick said. She played very consistent through the whole night. And Isabel Kelly, shes just been our go-to. Shes been very consistent.

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VOLLEY: Comets show grit in 5-set win - Kokomo Tribune