By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
MUSTANG – Yukon went into Mustang for the annual Bedlam on the Court match and for two and a half sets had the Lady Broncos right where they wanted them.
It was the final set and half that went to wrong way for the Millerettes.
No. 4 ranked Mustang rallied in the third set to pull off a 25-21 win, then won the Central Oklahoma Athletic Conference match over the No. 15 ranked Millerettes 3-1 Tuesday night in Mustang.
The Millerettes, 11-16, had lost the first set 25-12, but came back to take a 25-21 win in the second and even the match at 1-1 against a Lady Bronco team that had only lost four matches all season and came in with a 23-4 mark.
YHS had taken a lead in the third set, but saw Mustang come back late to win and turned the match around.
“It was a tough loss,” Millerette head coach Rachel Allred said. “The second and third set I was happy with. The third set, even though we lost we came over feeling pretty confident with that mind set there is the fourth and fifth set left. We have to get out of that mindset.
“We lost the first one and we were upset about it,” she said. “We won the second and gained some confidence and the third we lost, we still felt good and that we had another chance. But, a loss is a loss and we should not have felt as comfortable as we did in the third set going into that fourth set and thinking we had that extra time. You don’t always have that extra set as we learned in the fourth.”
The Millerettes had looked to come into the match and pull off the upset of the Lady Broncos as the team heads into the final week of the season.
“It is a rivalry and its bedlam no matter if it is band, student council, volleyball, golf or whatever it is always more emotional to play them,” Allred said. “You always have a great crowd, there was a great turnout for the unified team and it is that rivalry. The seniors want to go our knowing that we have won it.
“My whole message going into it is that we play three top six teams the last three games of the season and that will either break us or make us better,” she said. “We are trying to get better with them. I think this match was better than what Mustang expected it to be.
“The thing that hurt us was we were playing to survive and not playing to win. We had the mindset that oh we are two or three up or a two or three down instead of fighting enough to take control of the whole game. We have to get out of the habit of being comfortable of playing to survive instead of playing to be able to win.”
The Millerettes had their chances in the third set but playing in survival mode saw Mustang come back to take the lead and then score the final four points of the match to take a 25-21 win.
The Lady Broncos took a 5-1 lead to open the third set. YHS came back to close to 6-4 on a kill from Bri Worth, then tied the set 8-8 on a Katy Clark block and an Addie Wimmer kill. A second Worth kill tied the set 9-9 before Mustang went on a 4-1 run to take a 13-10 lead. The Lady Broncos led 13-11 and went on a 9-2 run to open a 22-15 lead. The Millerettes closed to 23-18 on a Kaycee Coleman tip-over, but Mustang scored the final two points to win the match.
“Katy had a great blocking night,” Allred said. “Her blocks in the second set are what won us that set. Her net presence is getting a lot better, she it getting quicker. We play against tons of quick offenses and that is really hard for a middle blocks and both our middle blockers are young and they have really stepped up to that challenge every week.
“Rachel (Kittell) played all four sets tonight and is her first full game back since her injury,” she added. “Her and Kaylee (Coleman) have been doing a great job on the right side, they put up a good block today and had a few kills. Getting her back is key, her block is definitely one we have been missing. She has more height and size on that side and it puts more pressure on those right side hitters. And, in our conference, we have some of the best outside hitters in the state. It’s great to have her back.”
The Millerettes will host No. 6 ranked Edmond Deer Creek on Tuesday and closes out the regular season with a match against No. 3 ranked Edmond North on Thursday. Tuesday’s match will start at 6:30 p.m. and will be preceded by Yukon’s unified team playing Putnam City’s unified team at 5:30 p.m.
The unified team features members of the Millerettes and the Yukon Special Olympics team. There will be three members of the Special Olympics team and three players from the high school team on the court during the match.
