SPENCER — In what may have been the most laid-back volleyball match of the year,
North Rowan beat Salisbury in three games in a battle of mismatched conference foes.The Cavaliers, playoff tested in two of the past three
seasons, earned a 15-3, 15-7, 15-3 sweep over a depleted Salisbury team with one win on the season.
“We’re trying. We’ve got a lot of
new people and we’re practicing hard,” Salisbury junior Jen Reilly said.
“We have days when we’re up and days when we’re not together, and this was
one of those days.”
Unfortunately for the Hornets, Reilly was
referring to the latter of those days. Salisbury’s Amy Steelman scored the first two
points of the match and then the Cavaliers tied the score and broke out on a 9-0 run with
Megan Honeycutt at the service line to ice the first game.
North’s Carrie Powers served for the first
six points of the second game and the Cavs led 10-2 before Salisbury rallied with four
straight strong serves from Reilly. The Hornets narrowed the gap to three on a point from
Alexis Lineberry, and after a short see-saw battle, the Cavs regained control and Meredith Clawson served out the
game behind two strong Honeycutt kills.
With two games in hand, North head coach Tricia
Hester sat her seniors and handed out playing time that her squad rewarded with an 8-0 run
to build a quick lead.
Kristen Kobylus scored those first eight points
and was disappointed when Salisbury finally got a side out. But her kill later in the game
set up a chance to finish the match, and she reeled off three quick winners to hit 15. For
the final point, Kobylus backed all the way up to the back wall and let fly on a screaming
liner that wasn’t retuned.
“On the last serve she (Hester) said,
‘Serve it as hard as you can’ and I was like, ‘Yes! I’ve been wanting
to do that all season,’” Kobylus
said. “It was a fun game.”
“I think she was just as surprised it went
over. I don’t know, maybe she expected it,” Hester said with a laugh.
And will Kobylus get the green light on that serve
with greater frequency now?
“No!” Hester added. “We just want
to get them in most of the time, as many as we’ve missed in the last few weeks.”
North looked strong from the service line and
everywhere else, missing only four serves all night. Kobylus used her big third game, in
which she had 12 of the points, to lead North with 13. Powers added 11 and Honeycutt nine,
all from that first run.
Honeycutt collected five of her eight kills in the
second game, and Latasha Pharr also had four good spikes.
Lineberry led Salisbury with five points, while
Reilly had four.
The match, played at 5 p.m. because the Hornets
didn’t bring a junior varsity squad, went along at a quick pace and there were plenty
of smiles and good-natured banter between the North players. The Cavs coach was a bit more
reflective, however, realizing the tough position counterpart Bob Beiter is in with much
of his top talent having left the team.
“If I lost three of my key players I’d
be having a hard time, too,” Hester said. “They just need to keep their heads up
and prepare for next season. You feel bad any time a team struggles like that.”
n
NOTES: North improved to 9-4 overall and 4-1 in
the CCC, while Salisbury dropped to 1-7, 1-4. … Without a JV game, Hester brought up
sophomores Julie Lackey and Ashley Witherspoon and freshman Jessica Moore for their first
taste of varsity ball. … Despite easier conditions than they’ve faced lately,
North still didn’t pass the ball to setter Powers as well as Hester would have liked.
“We’re still not passing the ball well, but I’m one of those coaches
who’ll never be satisfied until I see the perfect game,” Hester said. “We’ll work on it again in practice
tomorrow. I told them they’re going to get tired of it, but they are going to learn
to pass.” |
Today's News