|
When Fred T. Foard gets into a zone, the Tigers are hard to beat.
"When we have our focus, we play pretty well," Tigers coach Roger Shield said.
Well enough, that is, to move to 9-0 in the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference.
Behind 20 total kills from Erin Riley, and six straight service aces from Meredith Lutz to end the first game, the visiting Tigers topped Bandys 3-1 Tuesday and stopped the Trojans' winning streak at seven matches. Combining the powerful serve of Lutz, Riley's strength at the net, and several key blocks, the Tigers (14-2, 9-0) took Game 1 25-10. "We wanted to jump out on them early," Shield said. "Once Lutz got back to her second (time serving), that's when we really got things going. We depend on (Lutz and Riley) a lot." The second game was more of the first, with the Tigers taking it 25-12. "We just didn't have the defense, and they were just better than us," Bandys coach Heather Houser said. But not in the third game. The Trojans (8-4, 5-4) rallied to take Game 3 25-19 behind the net play of Kailey Punch and Kaitlin Brown. Together, they had four kills in the game, and combined for four blocks to hold off a Foard rally. "We knew we were going to be in for a battle," Shield said. A kill by Foard's Drew Worrells (12 total) gave the Tigers a 6-3 lead early in the game, but a drop shot from Katie Carpenter started a 6-0 run for the Trojans. Foard closed to within three twice at 17-14 and 20-17, but a kill and drop shot from Brown (eight kills) on both occasions allowed Bandys to pull away and continue the match. Foard then went back to what it did in the first two games, and raced out to a 13-6 lead that shrunk by no less than six points the rest of the way for the 25-15 win. Bandys' Megan Smith had six kills and Punch added three blocks. The Trojans host Patton and the Tigers host Hibriten on Thursday. |
