Hardaway’s Tiffany Ancrum drives the ball past Lithia Springs
defenders Jasmine Hurst and LaShay Romick.Tiffany Ancrum, whose
athleticism Mills said noticeably benefited from
the new regimen, finished with a game-high 13 kills and four aces,
including four of each in Game 2.
Ancrum
said it was a below-average night for her statistically but one where
she said her teammates made up for any lack of production.
“Our
defense was terrific,” Ancrum said. “We were working on passing all
week, and that picked up a lot. We were definitely rewarded with a lot
of points from it.”
Evelyn Hester led the Hawks with 20 assists
while Hannah Merriweather (four kills, one ace) and Essence Lowe (three
kills, one ace) made the biggest contributions behind Ancrum.
Lithia
Springs’ Elisha Boyer opened the match with a strong Game 1 that
included a game-high four kills, but the Lions were derailed by faults
on serves and inaccurate returns, which accounted for 10 of Hardaway’s
25 points.
Ancrum emerged as a threat in Game 2, and the Hawks
pulled away early with a five-point run that included a pair of Ancrum
aces and gave Hardaway a 10-5 lead. Boyer strung together three
consecutive aces to cut into the Hawks’ lead and make it 15-13, but
Hardaway scored five of the next six points to hold on to the advantage.
Lithia
Springs (26-16-2) gave Hardaway seven of its first 11 points on returns
into the net or net violations, and the Hawks took full advantage of
the boost.
Hardaway led by as many as eight points and led by at least four through the second half of the game.
The
quick victory (the match lasted just more than an hour) gave the Hawks
a mental boost heading into the second round, where most of the young
team never has played.
“We’re confident in ourselves but not
overly confident,” Ancrum said. “We’re just going to wait and see who
we play next and just look one game ahead right now.”
Hardaway, a
No. 2 seed in Region 1-AAAA, advanced to play the winner of Thursday’s
match between No. 1 seed Whitewater and No. 4 seed Dalton in the round
of 16. The Hawks will travel to Whitewater or play host to Dalton. The
date and time of the match has yet to be set.
“I’m proud we were
able to win and make it to the Sweet 16,” Mills said. “But now we’ll
just have to keep preparing for our next match.”
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