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Spain Park responded well to adversity throughout the match to defeat its crosstown rival Hoover before taking a commanding sweep of Calera. (Reporter Photos/Andrew Simonson)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Spain Park Jaguars and Hoover Buccaneers traded blow after blow in the latest installment of their crosstown rivalry, but in the end, it was the Jags who landed the decisive shot on the Bucs to claim victory.

Spain Park took a 3-1 win over Hoover on Wednesday, Sept. 4 at Hoover High School and used that momentum to claim a county battle against the Calera Eagles 3-0 the next day at Spain Park High School.

“I was really proud of our girls and the grit we’ve had,” Spain Park coach Kisor said of the win over Hoover, the first of his Jags career. “I know the first set we were down big, and we’ve been talking about just staying in it and keeping our head and just fighting.”

After an early 5-5 deadlock in the first set, the Bucs took control by winning four of the next five points to force a Spain Park timeout.

The Jags lurked a couple of points back from Hoover for the next stretch of the match and trailed just 20-18 going into the final points of the opening frame.

A Bucs service error cut the lead to just one, and Spain Park then tied up the set at 21-21 and made Hoover call a timeout to regroup.

The stoppage made little difference as the Jags won the next three points to get on set point. Despite a late Bucs surge of three straight points, Spain Park held on avoid extra points and won the first set 25-23.

Hoover responded by going up 4-1 to start the second set. However, the Jags clawed their way back and scored three straight points to take a 7-6 lead.

The set remained tightly contested from there and it took a Spain Park service error to break a 12-12 tie and give the Bucs the lead. Hoover then won the next two points to force a timeout.

While the Bucs held a 21-17 lead, a big Reagan Gilbert kill off a Cailyn Kyes assist flipped the momentum to the visitors. The Jags rode that wave to win the next four points to take the 22-21 lead.

Hoover tied up the match again with a kill to the back line and also tied up the set at 23-23, leading to a tense last few points in the set. Spain Park retook the lead to get on set point, and after the two teams went on a fierce rally, a foul called on the Bucs gave the set to the Jags 25-23.

With Spain Park now up 2-0 despite the tight nature of the match, it didn’t last much longer after Hoover opened up the third set on a 5-1 run. Unlike the previous two sets, Spain Park couldn’t get close enough to threaten the Bucs, even with a couple of back-and-forth stretches.

Hoover pulled away and went on to win the set 25-16, extending the match to a fourth set and putting the pressure back on the Jags to respond.

“I think that we relaxed a little bit in the third set, and they started playing their game,” Kisor said. “We weren’t playing as crisp as we were, so that got them going a little bit and I thought we just took that on the chin. But the way we responded was huge.”

Spain Park stepped up to the challenge and came out on a tear in the fourth set. The Jags won four of the first five points in the set and then went on to take an 8-1 lead, fully establishing themselves an advantage that they would never relinquish.

That didn’t mean Hoover would go down quietly as it won the next five points to pull within two. The set remained close from there as the Bucs seemingly had a response for each service run that Spain Park went on.

With the Jags up 22-17, Hoover won the next two points to trim the deficit to three, but Spain Park responded with two points of their own, giving them a big boost of energy as they reached match point.

However, a shot into the net gave the Bucs a shot of life, which they turned into another point off a long rally with a well-placed ball at the net.

The pressure was building on both sides to make a play with the score at 24-21, and when the Jags needed her the most, Ja’Niyah Moseley secured the final kill to seal the 25-21 fourth set win, take the match 3-1 and start the celebration.

After the match, Kisor gave props to his players up front in Gilbert and Alexa Benda for stepping up as well as Grayson Hyde. Gilbert finished with 14 kills while Benda and Wiggins had 11 kills, and all three players earned two aces. Benda also had six total blocks.

Kyes earned 34 assists and 10 digs in the match and her sister Camden Kyes led the way with 26 digs. Wiggins also took 13 digs.

Kisor was also proud of his team for overcoming the early nerves and staying the course to victory.

“It just feels good for our girls to play a full match,” Kisor said. “I thought we played pretty well. Early on, both sides had a lot of nerves, missed a lot of serves and I thought if we could just calm down, and I thought we stole the first set and once that happened, I thought we had a good chance.”

He also admitted that their defense needs more work, but he was proud of their continued improvements toward that goal, which partly came from their growing bond.

“Defensively, we’re getting better,” Kisor said. “We still have a lot of holes in our defense. We’ve got to do better on that one. But I think that every day, our serve receive defense and our defense on coverage is getting better and what we’re doing more now that we haven’t been doing in the first few games is we’re trusting each other.” 

Spain Park took the momentum from that win into a home showdown with Calera on Thursday, Sept. 5.

The Jags got off on a roll, scoring eight of the first 10 points to go up 8-2 in the first set. They then won six straight points to take a commanding 14-2 lead.

Calera fought back in a back-and-forth stretch to make the score 19-7, but Spain Park finished strong by going on a 5-1 run to take the set 25-8.

The Jags started the second set with another big service run, initially taking a 7-1 lead before extending it to 12-3.

Spain Park rallied again to go up 22-6 and then won the final three points of the set to seal the 25-6 win in the second set.

With the Eagles facing a 2-0 deficit in the match, they bounced back to start out the third set in front. Calera led 7-4 and maintained that three-point lead at 11-8.

The Jags then responded by winning three straight points to tie up the match at 11-11, and after another tie at 13-13, they made their move.

Spain Park then raced ahead to a 21-15 lead, one that they would see out to take the 25-18 win and secure the 3-0 sweep.

Wiggins led the team with 13 kills and also had nine digs and two aces, and Camden had a team-high 17 digs in addition to three aces. Cailyn celebrated her birthday with seven aces and 31 assists. Benda finished with 10 kills and four total blocks and Gilbert had 14 digs.

Spain Park will start area play on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at home against the Helena Huskies at 6 p.m.

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