Twin Rivers senior Torey Davis (23) attempts a kill against Greenville's Kaylin Becker (7) during a match Tuesday in Greenville. Becker had three blocks in the match for the Lady Bears. (Rob Tate/DAR) [Click to enlarge]

By ROB TATE ~ DAR Sports Writer

GREENVILLE -- Judging by the faces and the postures of the coaches during the third game Tuesday night, one could tell there was some anxiety.

Both Twin Rivers volleyball coach Kelly Null and Greenville coach Brent Huff were sitting on their respective benches with elbows rested on their laps and hands over their mouths at the exact same moment about midway through the third game. Both were hoping that their teams would pull off the tightly-contested match.

In the end, Twin Rivers had just enough juice to outlast Greenville 30-28, 15-25, 25-23.

"During the weekend, we went to the SEMO tournament and we didn't have a good weekend," Null said. "Our three goals (for this week) were to get more kills, work as a team and be mentally tough. I saw bits and pieces of that throughout these three games. We did get more kills than we've been getting."

The night started out looking like it might be a long one for the host Lady Bears. Twin Rivers jumped to an early 14-8 lead in the first game, but Greenville had plenty of answers.

With Miranda Stewart serving for the Lady Bears, Greenville went on a 5-0 run to make it a one-point game. The run included kills by Tara Porter, Brooke Haynes and Stewart.

A few moments later, the Lady Bears tied the game up at 21-21 and then took a two-point lead with a kill from Kaylin Becker and an ace by Hannah Smith.

The match seesawed back and forth with each team tying it up a 24, 25, 26, and 27 until the Lady Royals (5-3-1) finally put the Lady Bears (1-6-1) away, 30-28, after a lift and an attack error by Greenville.

The second game was something Null has seen all too often from her team this season. Greenville took a quick lead and buried the Lady Royals, 25-15.

"That's the story of every game," Null said. "We have a very strong first game, (in the) second game we just go flat. Maybe we need to change up our practice where we have a middle session that's harder. Because we start (practice) in the mornings, we break for breakfast and then we come back. Probably when we come back from breakfast we need to hit it more hard."

Greenville took the early advantage in the deciding third game. Twin Rivers rallied back to get out to a 12-10 lead. Greenville battled back to a 15-13 lead. But it was all Twin Rivers after that.

Lady Royals junior Cassie Parks served Twin Rivers out to a 24-19 lead. During the run, Stephanie Jennings and Tabitha Hackle each had kills.

Greenville didn't go down without a fight, pulling to within 24-23, but lost the final point after too many hits in their last possession.

The Lady Royals were led by strong effort from Jennings who had 11 kills and Parks was 17-for-19 serving on the night.

Greenville put up one heck of a battle Tuesday night, and Huff has been seeing more and more improvements by the game this season. The Lady Bears also competed in the SEMO tournament last weekend, but came up empty-handed with a 0-5 record. Huff talked about afterwards how his team has been prone to giving up long runs but battling back all season.

Twin Rivers defeated the Greenville just a week ago in Broseley.

"We just played at Cape (Girardeau) over the weekend and I think we tied up with every team there at 17," Huff said. "And we ended up losing five of the ballgames. We're having a tough time. We're playing a lot better now but Twin Rivers really stepped their play as opposed to last week when we played them. We stepped up also but unfortunately we came up at the bottom of it."

The Lady Bears were led by Stewart who had 11 assists. Becker had seven kills and three blocks and Porter had seven kills as well to go along with four digs.