For The Tribune

Seymour’s volleyball team dropped a marathon match against Bedford North Lawrence on Tuesday evening at home.

The Owls were able to force a fifth set against a strong-hitting Stars team. After dropping the first two sets 25-17, 25-18, the Owls fought back and won the third and fourth sets 25-21 and 25-13.

The Stars won the deciding fifth set by a score of 15-13.

Even though the Owls ended up dropping the match, coach Holly Birdsong said it was one of the better games the team was able to put together so far this season.

“I think this was one of our better games this season,” she said. “I felt like we played this one all the way through. We played hard in Game 5, and that’s something we struggled with this season.”

The first set featured a battle at the beginning, but the Stars were able to pull away midway through the set.

The Stars went on the first run behind consecutive serves from Savanna VanHoy to bring the score 6-2. The Owls then answered with a 5-0 run of their own behind serves from Abby Schmidt to bring the score 7-7. Schmidt had one ace during the run.

Both teams went back and forth until the Stars built a lead at 15-11. The Stars were able to score the final 10 points to capture the set 25-17 behind serves from VanHoy, Haley Deckard, Jenna Dufresne and Meredith Deckard.

It looked as though the Owls were going to take control of the second set as they jumped to a 12-7 lead. That’s when Bedford’s VanHoy went on a tear and scored seven straight points to give the Stars the 15-12 advantage. After trading a few points, Seymour’s defense collapsed and VanHoy scored another seven points and the Owls dropped the set 25-18 to give the Stars a commanding 2-0 set lead.

That’s when things changed.

The Owls came out flat to start the set, falling behind 6-1, but quickly turned things around with serving from Schmidt, Makenna Fee and Jessica Blevins. After Blevins’ seven points, the Owls found themselves with a 16-9 lead. The last part of the set featured back-and-forth between both teams before the Owls won 25-21.

The Owls then dominated the fourth set to a roaring crowd. Blevins and Emily Corcoran both had runs that built a commanding lead for the Owls. Corcoran scored six straight points and Blevins scored eight straight to give the Owls a dominating 18-4 lead. The Stars would not go away, going on a few runs, but it was too late and the Owls captured the fourth set 25-13 to force a fifth set.

The fifth set was as close it could get. Both teams were locked in, literally going back-and-forth with possessions. The biggest lead was when the Stars went up 8-5 over the Owls. The Stars ended up winning 15-13 after VanHoy hit the ball lightly over the net out of reach for the Owls.

Birdsong said she was proud of the effort her team gave in the final set.

“I’m glad we were able to make it to the fifth game and glad we were able to keep them on the back row to keep it close,” she said.