Clay City suffers season-ending loss to Shakamak in sectional semifinal

Clay City's Emma Baumgartner (No. 5) and Kennedy Rea (No. 8) leap above the net in hopes of blocking the ball during the Class A White River Valley Sectional.

Adler Ingalsbe photo

It didn’t go exactly like the first meeting on Oct. 7, but based on the scores in Saturday afternoon’s Class A White River Valley Sectional semifinal matchup between Clay City and Shakamak, it was a game that could’ve gone to either team.

Unfortunately for the Eels, the barnburner went the way of the Lakers again as Clay City suffered a 3-1 loss that brought an end to its season.

Clay City overcame an opening set loss (25-18) with a 25-16 second-set victory to knot things up at one apiece, making it a three-set match to decide which team would play for a championship later that night.

Clay City possessed late leads in each of the third and fourth sets but were unable to close either of them out, which resulted in the Eels dropping back-to-back sets by identical 25-23 scores to close out the first year under head coach Asie Jeffers.

Clay City finished the season with a 9-15 record while Shakamak advanced onto Saturday night’s championship game where the Lakers swept Lighthouse Christian Academy 3-0 to claim the program’s second straight sectional title.