ROANOKE - The Lady Cougar volleyball fought valiantly on the road Thursday, but fell to one of the best teams in the River Ridge District, 3-0 (8-25, 15-25, 14-25).
“We played them better today than we did last year,” said Cougars coach Ashley Surber. “We dug the ball better. They are phenomenal and are always good. They put the ball down when they need to.”
The Knights (8-2, 2-0) would jump out to a 6-0 lead thanks to three Pulaski errors and kills by Piper Hagan, Morgan Shannon, and Emily Lawrence. That would set the tempo for a rough opening stanza for the Cougars (7-5, 0-2). A Jette Wade kill, Amanda Salinas kill, and a hit out helped the Cougars garner three points, closing to within 8-3.
However, Cave Spring would go on a huge run, including two kills by Shannon, one by Hagan, and blocks by Corey Jacobson and Lauren Sledd. That helped the Knights extend an 8-3 game into a 16-3 lead. Pulaski would be unable to recover and dropped the first game.
“The kids are mad that they got beat the way they did in the first game,” Surber said. “It made them want to play better in the second and third game.”
And play better the Cougars did. Game two remained deadlocked through most of the early points. Two service errors and a hit out gave the Cougars a 3-2 lead. Cave Spring then mounted another charge, scoring four straight points to take a 6-3 lead. An ace by Lawrence, kill by Jacobson, and a service error contributed to the Knight’s surge.
Unlike the first game though, the Cougars would be able to hang with the Knights and answered for nearly every point put out. Cave Spring though would take advantage of the Cougars with an 8-5 lead. The Knights once again forced the issue with two service aces by Shannon, a kill by Sledd, and two Cougar mistakes.
The Cougars tried to climb back at the end of the second game, scoring seven of the next 10 points. However, the effort would not be enough and the Cougars dropped game two.
“We just can’t wait until the end of the game to play well,” Surber said. “We have to start playing from point one and not waiting until we are down.”
Pulaski would fight hard again in the third game, but a key injury may have affected the outcome of the game. Senior Lauren Stanley left the game with an injury to her back. She would leave the court under her own power and received treatment.
“She said it hurts,” Surber said. “She has limited range of motion. We are going to take it day-by-day and let her ice it and rest it. Her injury took away one of our more consistent servers.”
She would leave at the 13-6 mark in the game and cost the Cougars valuable ground. The Knights would score seven of the next eight points to take a 21-7 lead. That burst helped Knights keep the lead in the waning moments of the game and seal the victory.
Ashley Burleson led the Cougars on defense with 15 digs. Maddy Chitwood had a kill and a service ace on offense and Jette Wade had two kills. Amanda Salinas, Becky Pennington, Shammra Arnold, and Tamar Smith all had a kill apiece.
The Cougars will play on the road once again in district play against Cave Spring’s cross-town rival, Hidden Valley. The Titans come into the game with an impressive 11-0 record, 2-0 in district play. Even more impressive is the fact that they have only lost one game out of the 34 that they’ve played total.
“They’ve got pretty much everyone returning,” Surber said. “It’s going to be a tough game. We have to get on it from the get go. We can’t leave ourselves a hole and play out of it.”
The Cougar JV also lost 2-1 (18-25, 25-16, 15-12). This marks the first loss of the year, as they entered the game 11-0.
10-1-09
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