MT. ULLA— East Rowan’s volleyball team did just about everything right Thursday
night. The Mustangs had to, after all — they were playing West Rowan.In an intense county and 3ASouth Piedmont
Conference rivalry, East came away with a 15-7, 8-15, 15-5, 16-14 win over the Falcons,
defeated by a quick and determined East effort.
“It’s always a big
rivalry, we always play harder against West,”Mustang hitter Emily Rich said. “We
played really well together.”
Rich came up with six kills and
nine blocks, the second night in a row she turned in a big performance at the net. Rich
had nine more blocks Wednesday in a 20-18, 15-11, 16-14 loss to Central Cabarrus.
“It came last night, I
started doing a lot better, especially on my block,”Rich said. She then added with a
laugh, “Maybe it was something I ate.”
The Falcons were made sick by too
many mistakes. West served 18 balls into the net, including 10 in the critical third and
fourth games after the Falcons tied the match with a 15-8 win in the second game.
After East took a 1-0 lead in the
match, Kathryn McNeely stepped to the service line and reeled off 11 straight points
behind three aces and strong hitting from Abbi Helig and Sara Pieper. East crawled back to
within 14-8 before Danielle Scearce dropped the winning shot over on a block to tie the
match. Scearce, a junior, led West with eight kills and five blocks.
“In warmups I was doing
pretty good, Iwas hoping it would carry into the match,” Scearce said.
Scearce and the rest of the West
hitters didn’t have many opportunities in the final two games, though, as West sent
ball after ball into the net, beyond the back line and out of bounds — everywhere but
in.
West held a 4-1 lead in Game 3
before East rallied behind a Rich block, kill and two strong serves to lead 7-4. Three
straight serving opportunities missed for West, and Mustang Christin Ingold served a 6-0
run to put East in the driver’s seat.
“We served really bad, when
we don’t serve well it really kills us,”Scearce said. “The game we won we
did really well getting our serves over and the next one we didn’t.”
“Serves killed us a couple of
times,”added West head coach Susan Drye. “It’s just inconsistent. We work
on serves a lot in practice, but there’s just a few who consistently get them in
every time.”
Down 2-1 in the match, West still
fought for a fifth game and led briefly at 7-3 and 8-5. But Tiffany Poole brought East
into an 8-8 tie with an ace to set the stage for a close race.
Falcon Kari Schenk tied the match
at 10-10 with an ace, then East went ahead 12-11 on a Melissa Warden kill that rolled over
the net and dropped. East got to game point on a Michelle Haynes hit but West tied the
match at 14-all when Scearce blocked a Rich kill.
Finally, though, East pulled ahead
when a West kill shot found the net, and a net violation secured the 16-14 edge.
“I was hoping we would (force
a fifth game),” Scearce said. “We just kind of fell apart.”
“I thought we had them the
last game, we played really hard for it,”Drye said. “We just kept rallying back
and forth, it was just whoever made the mistakes. I don’t think anybody had an
advantage at the time.”
The one advantage East did own was
Warden, who had five big kills and five service points in the deciding game.
“Melissa Warden, I can’t
commend her enough,”East head coach Sandy Basinger said. “She made really smart
decisions, and whenever the girls get in trouble they go to her, they know she’s
going to get it over.”
n
NOTES: Ingold led East with 13
points, while Poole added 11 and Warden nine. Rich and Julie Alexander also scored seven
points apiece. … Kathryn McNeely used her big run in the second game to score 17
points for West, while Schenk added eight. Heilig and Pieper each had seven kills for the
Falcons, with Heilig adding six blocks. |
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