Jeff-Morgan holds on to defeat Carmichaels
JEFFERSON — In volleyball there are a lot of momentum swings that can happen at any time, and on Tuesday night, Carmichaels and Jefferson-Morgan had their fair share of “big mo.” As the final kill was made in the fifth set, the Lady Rockets were regain the momentum and defeat its rival 3-2 in Section 5-A play.
The Lady Rockets (3-2) won sets against the Lady Mikes by the scores of (1-3) 25-19, 27-29, 25-16, 22-25 and 15-9.
“Tonight was the first night that we actually pulled it together as a team and never gave up,” J-M coach Shanna Yourchik said. “Usually when we get down, we stayed down, but tonight we were determined. I’m very proud of my girls and they played great tonight.”
Carmichaels took an early 7-3 lead in the opening set, but J-M rallied to tie it at 9-9 and then took the first set to go up 1-0.
In a wild second set, the Mikes got out to another early lead, only to have the Rockets recover and knot things up again, but this time Carmichaels withstood the charge and had J-M reeling after being one point away to even things up.
The Rockets then scored four straight points to regain the momentum, only to have the Mikes close out the second set by a 29-27 margin.
J-M rocketed to an 11-5 lead in the third set, which prompted Carmichaels’ coach Ashley Speeney call a timeout to settle her troops down, but it was all for not as the Rockets gained the 2-1 advantage.
The contest looked to be over in the fourth set as J-M held an 18-14 lead, but the underdog Mikes earned some points to knot things up at 19-19 and then scored the set’s final six points to send it into a fifth set.
In the fifth set the Rockets would not be deterred as they gathered the first four points and went up 10-5. The Mikes scored the next the next three points to keep it close, but the Rockets put away their rival and collected the 15th point via a kill from captain Paige Huber.
“We have struggled with serve-receive, and I just told them to focus more on serve-receive passes,” Yourchik said. “It doesn’t have to be a great pass, but just as long as it is off the ground. We wanted to make the good passes and finish around the net.”
Huber was J-M’s most consistent player as she had 13 kills and 17 digs.
“Paige is the heart and soul of this team,” Yourchik said. “She brings everybody together, and I think some of the girls want to win and play good just for her. We are trying to get her more involved with the offense since she is our heavy hitter.”
Taylor Ewart added 11 digs in the win, while Heidi Daines chipped in with eight kills and Chelsea Dicks recorded 13 assists.
Despite the loss, Speeney was proud of the way her girls played and battled all night in the hostile environment.
“When we put some heart into it and go after balls, it’s a completely different team,” Speeney said. “We showed a lot of heart and we can only build off of that. We did a great job of battling with a tough crowd against us and we were focus out there on the court.”
For Carmichaels, Marissa Krall tallied nine kills, as Cameron Grimes added six kills and 23 service points. Sarah Hathaway dished out 19 assists and 18 service points.