KF ladies, Cav boys get volleyball sweeps
Published 11:47 pm Friday, September 26, 2008
King’s Fork’s Lady Bulldogs and the Lakeland Cavaliers each swept their way to season sweeps over their Suffolk counterparts on Thursday night at King’s Fork.
In the girls’ match, Lady Bulldog aces paved the way for two runs in game three as King’s Fork got a 25-13, 25-15, 25-18 win. King’s Fork’s win over Lakeland in the top schools’ district opener in August is KF’s one other win on the season.
After a good Lakeland run on Porshe Garner’s serve made it a 9-4 Lakeland lead in game three, King’s Fork sided out and Haley Johnson served seven consecutive aces to change the game around to a 12-9 KF lead.
Lakeland answered with a 5-0 run on Christine Coles’ serve, but the Lady Cavaliers had only a brief lead.
KF moved in front at 16-15 and kept opening the gap with seven more points on Juliette Thompson’s service. Thompson put down three aces during the run which effectively put the final game out of reach. Thompson was the best all-around player for the Lady Bulldogs on the night as she contributed with serving, assisting and attacking.
KF used a 26-6 advantage in aces throughout the match. Whitney Nichols and Bianca Ward each served a couple aces as KF opened the match by taking a 12-3 lead.
Early in game two, KF opened up a lead with three straight aces by Johnson to make it 13-7 KF. Thompson-to-Ward combined for two sets and spikes early in game two. Renikqua Ricks scored four of her six kills in the game as Lakeland got no closer than five points after KF’s 13-7 lead.
For Lakeland, Garner finished with four kills and four aces. Ginny Duke also had four kills.
Thompson finished with six aces, six assists and five kills for KF. Johnson had 10 aces, Ricks’ six kills were the team-high, and Ward had five assists and four aces.
Lakeland (0-10, 0-10) goes to Oscar Smith on Tuesday while King’s Fork (2-9, 2-8) hosts Hickory.
In the boys’ match, Lakeland (8-2, 8-2) had little problem through the first two games before King’s Fork (0-10, 0-10) took game three down to the wire.
After KF started the match with a 5-2 lead, Lakeland controlled the action until midway through game three.
The remainder of the opening game included nine assists by Russell Carr and five kills by Scott Asbell. Lakeland started game two with 12 straight points on Asbell’s serve. Carr set Alex Brooks for five kills and Taylor Bess for three kills during the 12-0 start.
The Cavaliers kept going to a 17-9 lead in game three before the Bulldogs made the finish interesting.
Three weeks ago, King’s Fork head coach Leslie Hubert was trying to recruit new volleyball players even though the Bulldogs were a couple matches into the new season. Four recent recruits from KF’s basketball program, Chris Hearn, Jr., Davante Gardner, Kyndal Jones and Jamar Wertz, were on the squad on Thursday.
Hearn, Jones and Gardner helped the Bulldogs rally in game three. A block by Jones, a kill by Hearn, then a kill by Jones brought KF within 17-14. Back-to-back kills by the 6-foot-7 Gardner, followed by back-to-back aces by Hearn, then a Lakeland hitting error, made it 21-20 Lakeland.
KF tied the match at 23-23 before a kill by Asbell and an ace by Jay Baines on match point fought off the Bulldogs.
For the Bulldogs, Dominique Lee had seven assists as Jones and Hearn had four kills each. For the Cavaliers, Carr finished with 30 assists and five kills. Brooks had 20 kills and Asbell added 10.