The Avery volleyball team looked to build off its emotional win over West Wilkes with a trio of matches over the past week. On Tuesday, August 24th, Avery traveled to new Lentz-Eggers Gym at the brand new Watauga High School for its annual rivalry against the Watauga Lady Pioneers.For the first three games of its match with rival Watauga, Avery’s volleyball team was able to build an early lead. Keeping that lead proved to be somewhat difficult.
Though the Vikings were able to keep one advantage long enough to win the game, Watauga was able to rally and claim a 3-1 victory.
Watauga won the first game 25-23, but Avery came back to win the second 25-21. From there, the Pioneers beat Avery 25-17 and 25-15. The Vikings managed to break open a close second game and take a 14-9 lead it would never lose. Watauga closed to within two points three
different times, but Avery closed out the win when a Watauga kill attempt did not go over the net.
“We made really great defensive plays and we got our serves in. That makes a big difference.” Avery coach Caroline Turner said. “We had the momentum our way and that helped.”
Avery had a golden opportunity to put some heavy pressure on the 4-A Pioneers had the Vikings maintained their 12-4 advantage in the first game. However, the Pioneers slowly worked their way back into the match and cut Avery’s lead to 22-19.
From there, Watauga’s Hannah Stewart took over by knocking down three kills and serving up another point to lead the Pioneers to the win.
“Our girls played really hard,” Turner said. “They’ve come together as a team and played as a team and they’re doing a great job of doing that.”
With the match tied 1-1, Watauga started to establish its offense, though Avery took a 4-0 lead in the third game. Watauga recovered to turn a 19-13 lead into a 25-17 win. The Pioneers bolted to an 11-5 lead in the fifth game and never looked back.
Watauga’s jayvee team claimed a 25-1, 25-13 victory over Avery prior to the varsity action. The Pioneers took big leads at the beginning of both games, going up 7-0 in the first game and 6-1 in the second. Avery struggled with the serving of Kristen Carter, who had seven aces and scored 19 points while serving for the Pioneers.
The Lady Vikings bounced back with authority the next evening, traveling to Hays and defeating the North Wilkes Lady Vikings in straight sets in both JV and varsity matches.
The junior varsity team set the pace for the evening with a pair of decisive sets, winning by scores of 25-8 and 25-16 to make short work of their Lady Viking counterparts.
The varsity match proved to be much of the same, as the experienced and athletic Avery club was simply too much for North to handle. Avery gave up no more than 13 points in any set and swept away North Wilkes by scores of 25-13, 25-12, and 25-10 to close out a decisive win.
Wednesday’s win was a complete team effort. Savannah Dellinger netted four kills, seven ace serves, and six digs, with six kills and two ace serves from Lacey Barrier. Senior Megan Robbins recorded six kills and an ace serve, with seven kills from junior Megan Tennant and 25 assists from senior Cassie Bumgarner. Johanna Pittman had a pair of ace serves and seven digs, with seven digs and a service ace by both Melinda Eggers and Shayna Vance.“Watauga and North Wilkes are completely different teams in the way they play volleyball. It took a little bit of an adjustment but the girls came out and played their style of volleyball and were very successful,” Coach Caroline Turner said after the win. “Everyone contributed to the North Wilkes game in every way, but I still believe our strongest showing this year was at West Wilkes. All of these non-conference teams and tournaments we have been a part of will give us great experience when we start conference play this Thursday with Owen. The girls have come together as a team and work very well together. They are a lot of fun to watch because they have love volleyball and have a great time playing the game.”
This past Monday evening the Lady Vikings looked for a measure of payback when they hosted Watauga in its home opener on the newly-reconstructed and repainted floor of Viking Gym.
The Avery junior varsity team took the floor first against the Lady Pioneers jayvees. The pair played a close first set as the teams stayed close throughout the game. Watauga came out on top in the first match by a 26-24 score, then took the second set in the best of three match in decisive fashion by the final score of 25-9.
Following the JV match the varsity teams took the floor for a rematch of a match held just six days earlier that was won by Watauga. In the first set of the match the Pioneers opened up a 7-3 lead with its strong service game. From that point the Lady Vikings had difficulty returning the Watauga service and the Lady Pioneers made key digs and kills, building its lead on an 8-1 scoring run to 15-4. Avery continued to fight in the set but the Pioneers took the first game by a 25-11 score.
The second set was the most competitive set of the match as Avery took an early 5-3 lead. Watauga battled back to take a 9-7 lead. Midway through the set the Pioneers used a 5-2 run to build a working margin at 14-9. then a 21-13 edge. Despite the lead, the Lady Vikings refused to fold as the service game of outside hitter Johanna Pittman helped Avery earn five consecutive points and get back to within three points at 21-18. Watauga withstood the Lady Viking flurry however, winning four of the final five points of the set to take a 25-19 win.
In the third and final set of the match, Watauga jumped out to an 8-2 lead before an Avery time out was called to try to stem the tide. The Lady Vikings rallied to get within 13-8, but Watauga answered with a 4-0 run to lead 17-8, forcing another Avery time out.
Watauga proved too tough to stop on the evening, however, extending its lead and eventually taking the match by a 25-12 final score.
Avery returns to the floor for two matches this week, a home match Wednesday against North Wilkes and the Western Highlands Conference opener at home against an improved Owen club.
