Last Thursday evening was a battle of the cats on the hardwood as the Avery Middle School Lady Panthers volleyball team invaded Cranberry to tangle with the Cranberry Lady Wildcats. Both teams have had solid starts to their respective seasons and played a hard-fought three set match that went to the wire. When the smoke cleared, it was Cranberry who defended home turf and came away with a thrilling match victory by scores of 18-25, 27-25, and 25-23, respectively.Avery took the preliminary set by a 25-19 score prior to the beginning of the conference tilt.
When the best-of-three sets encounter began, Avery grabbed an early 7-4 advantage and extended its lead to 12-6. Cranberry battled back behind the play of Bethany Burleson to erase the margin and take the lead at 16-15 before an Avery timeout.
The stoppage of play seemed to motivated the visitors, as Avery went on to win 10 of the final 12 points of the game. Avery was paced by Raina Wiseman, who finished the game serving strong, scoring the team’s final eight points in the set to pull away from the Lady Wildcats and take the 1-0 set advantage.
Avery looked poised to win the match in two straight sets when it scored three of the first four points and 6 of 8 to take a four-point advantage. Cranberry rallied back to tie the game at 6-6. Avery then went on another scoring run to take a 13-8 lead, but the Lady Wildcats refused to fold. The Lady Panthers grabbed a 20-13 edge, but Cranberry finally broke serve, then came all the way back to tie the game at 22-22. The Lady Wildcats leaned on the service game of Brandy Banner and the scoring of Elizabeth Pittman to spark the comeback, one which swung momentum in the favor of Cranberry.
Although they gave up the lead, Avery hung tough and even had a match point opportunity, serving with a 24-23 lead. Cranberry turned the Lady Panthers away with a point and extended the match. Both teams played strong volleyball with extended rallies before the Lady Wildcats finally emerged victorious with a 27-25 win to tie the match at a set apiece.
In the third game, the squads were rarely separated by more than a couple of points on the scoreboard. Cranberry held its largest lead early on at 8-4, but Avery scored four consecutive points to tie the game at 8 apiece.
The teams continued to play a nip-and-tuck game as the team were tied on multiple occasions. Late in the game, the Lady Wildcats slowly pulled ahead at 23-18, forcing Avery to take timeout. Following the stoppage, the Lady Panthers scored five consecutive points, including the final two from Kylie Polsgrove, to tie the game at 23-23. Although they surrendered the lead, Cranberry showed its mettle and pride by scoring the final two points to win the set and the match.
It was a great effort and display of volleyball by both squads, indicative of the play they’ve employed throughout the season thus far.For Avery, the loss the dropped the club to 2-3 for the season. Despite the defeat, the defending Toe River Conference champions have shown that they have the ability to play with any team in the conference and are a threat to take the title again this season.
“We have four returning players this year, and the rest have never played before. They’ve come a long way since early August and everyone has improved. We’ve had some tough games with Cane River, East Yancey and now with Cranberry,” Lady Panthers head volleyball coach Stephanie Huff said after the match. “Cranberry is a good team and a really scrappy club. I thought we played pretty equally today. There is a lot of promise for this team this season. I see us doing a lot of good things and seeing girls moving up and playing well for us. They all get along, and I’m really proud of them.”
The win vaulted the Lady Wildcats to 2-2 overall on the season, and the team looks to be a force for the remainder of the regular season and the upcoming conference tournament.
“We have two girls returning from last year and we’re mainly a seventh-grade team. The girls really pulled together tonight. Our serves have been down and have cost us in our other games, but tonight our serve was really good. We set the ball up and had a lot of teamwork,” Lady Wildcats head coach Hannah Trivett said after the win. “We have played to our level of competition this season. We had a lead in the first game, but we let up. The girls really served well in the last two games, and you could tell they wanted the win really badly. Our girls don’t care to hit the floor for a ball and I’m really proud of them.”
Both teams had home matches early in the week and will square off with one another in a rematch at Avery on Monday, September 27th.
