Draft on top of Southern Valley

By Doug Layman Correspondent
Published: September 18, 2008

FORT DEFIANCE — Aliya Stevenson just couldn’t hide the confidence.
The Stuarts Draft outside hitter jump-started a fifth-game surge to lead her Cougars to a 3-2 Southern Valley District volleyball battle at the Reservation Thursday.
Stevenson, who led the visitors with nine kills, 30 digs and 17 service points saved her best for last as the senior delivered a knock-out, three-kill, two-ace performance in the deciding Game 5 as Stuarts Draft held off Fort Defiance to grab sole possession of first place in the district.
“I’m happy…it feels great,” Stevenson said. “We just decided to play our game and move our play to another level.”
Stuarts Draft (5-3, 3-0 Southern Valley) jumped out to a 2-0 lead behind a couple of runs with Stevenson at the service line.
In Game 1, Draft held a 21-20 advantage until a Stevenson dink gave the Cougars the service. After a Fort error, Stevenson’s ace forced Fort coach Lynn Alexander into a timeout. The ploy didn’t stop the momentum as the Cougars’ Erin Brown delivered another kill to push the lead to four at 24-20. Then, Stevenson’s jump-serve failed her as the ball caught the net.
“I’ve been working for four years on my jump serve,” she said.  “Now, I’m pretty confident with it.”
Draft needed a 5-0 spurt late in the game to take the lead, a trend that continued in all three wins.
“I have a lot of confidence in my girls,” Stuarts Draft coach Kami Meeteer said. “They should always be able to come back from a deficit.”
The Indians grabbed an early lead in Game 2 and still maintained a 17-14 advantage until Stevenson took over. Again, a power kill preceded four straight points from the service line to put the Cougars back in front. They held on to win 25-21.
But the Fort (6-4, 2-1 Southern Valley) stormed back with a couple of big runs to take Games 3 and 4 and set up a final fifth game.
An Indian 7-0 run set up by six Cougar errors gave Fort the early 13-7 lead in Game 3 and a 9-0 spurt in Game 4 kept the momentum in the Indians’ court to knot the match a 2-2. Senior Heidi Michael had two service points and two diving digs in the last six points to keep Draft at bay.
“At some point in every game we had a lead and just couldn’t hold on,” Fort’s Alexander said. “But I’m really proud of the way we played defense tonight. We really picked up our play in Games 3 and 4.”
And Alexander pointed to the play of Michael as an example.
“Heidi is 100 percent effort all the time and she doesn’t get noticed much,” she said.
After handing the Indians a 4-2 lead in Game 5, the Cougars outscored Fort 5-0 and never looked back.
“It’s pretty nice to be in first place right now,” Meeteer said. “But it’s a long season.”
Stevenson summed the Cougars’ play with one word: effort.
“We left it all on the floor tonight,” she said. “It was a great effort.”