SEYMOUR — In its season-opener, Columbus North’s volleyball team found itself in a position to make a late comeback Tuesday night.
Down two sets to one, the Bull Dogs led 20-14 in the fourth at Seymour. While North had its chance, it wasn’t able to push the match to a fifth set and fell 25-22, 27-29, 25-21, 25-23.
“I think, in the fourth, we started off really strong — gaining a lead early on them — and the girls got a little complacent,” North coach Caitie Greiner said. “They took off a couple rotations, and Seymour got a big run. That got us down, and the momentum shifted. They had more intensity than us.”
The teams exchanged the lead in the early goings of the first set until the Bull Dogs won four straight points on serves from Jalynn Reardon to lead 8-4.
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The Owls (2-0) answered by scoring six points in a row to lead 12-9. The teams again traded the lead, after North closed the gap, but a 7-0 run by Seymour propelled it to a 20-13 lead. While the Bull Dogs would pull within 22-20, the Owls closed the set at 25-21.
Seymour took its momentum into the second set, but North also started getting into a rhythm. The Owls led 7-4 before a mini rally by the Bull Dogs put them on top 9-8 to force an Seymour timeout.
Out of the break, the teams battled, tying the score five times, until an Owls ace and block led to four straight points and a 20-17 Seymour advantage. North took a timeout, but another ace and kill put the Owls up 22-17.
A kill from North’s Agustina Fainguersch stopped the bleeding, which then led to a Bull Dogs rally. Down 24-22, North’s Lauryn James had a block and kill to tie the game. The teams tied at 25, 26 and 27 before the Bull Dogs buckled in to take it 29-27.
The third set also proved a roller coaster for both teams. North built a 15-9 lead before Seymour strung together six straight points to retie the set. The teams then stayed within three points of each other. The Owls led 23-21 before a pair of Bull Dog hitting errors helped put Seymour up by a set.
North used a pair of small scoring streaks to build a 12-7 lead early in the fourth set, but the Owls slowly chipped away at the deficit. Seymour eventually cut the score to 21-19, which prompted a timeout by the Bull Dogs. Down 23-20, the Owls came up with a kill before Carlee Robinson pushed across four key serves — including a game winner that clipped the net and wasn’t returned — to complete the comeback.
Fainguersch, James and Emma Tynan all had eight kills for North. James and Madi Roop recorded five blocks apiece. Fainguersch notched 14 digs, and Reardon served four aces.
