Lady ’Cats pummel Mustangs netters

By Jim Metcalfe, The Delphos Herald
Published:  Saturday, October 3, 2009 (5 months, 2 weeks ago)
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jmetcalfe@delphosherald.com

LAFAYETTE — Jefferson’s volleyball varsity team could be forgiven for looking past Allen East Thursday night at “The Corral” of Allen East High School.
After all, the Lady Wildcats entered at 13-0, 5-0 in the Northwest Conference; the Lady Mustangs were 2-12 and 0-5.
The Wildcats showed no signs of overlooking anyone, pummeling the hosts 25-8, 25-14, 25-14.
The 1-2 punch of junior Bridget Culp (16 kills, 10 digs, 7/7 serving) and senior Mallorie Wilson (11 kills, 25/25 serving, 8 aces, 6 digs) wouldn’t let that happen.
“One of the keys for us this season was that those two have taken the leadership of this team. They took control from the beginning,” Jefferson coach Diane Wilson observed.
That they did — for the season and this night. The Wildcats (14-0, 6-0) scored the first three points and never looked back. The Mustangs (3-12, 0-6) did battle back within 8-7 on a hitting error but a Wilson reverse tip between the defense gave junior Kristin Klausing (4 kills, 16/16 serving, 3 aces, 9 digs) the serve. Six aces later, along with a number of Allen East hitting miscues, put the Red and White up 24-7; even two timeouts by Allen East coach Penny Yetman could do nothing to stop the onslaught. A kill by Allen East’s Cheyenne Sweigart 6 kills, 8 blocks/2 stuffs, 6 digs) only prolonged the inevitable as Culp hit a spike off a back-row defender on set point.
“We wanted to set the tone early and get them down. Teams, especially when they are struggling, tend to get down when you come at them early,” Coach Wilson said. “We wanted to hit hard early and maybe intimidate them. We have a tendency to come out a bit lazy and come from behind but not tonight.”
In set number 2, the teams were even for the first 12 volleys. A 5-0 sport, with three kills and a stuff by Culp and a spike by senior Stacey Blockberger (5 kills) put them up by 10-6. That gave the visitors all the momentum for the remainder of the set. A 6-0 spurt on the serves of Wilson, including a pair of aces, and a bomb off a back-row defender by Culp finished the set.
“We served really well tonight; we only missed two serves and had 15 aces. That put them on their heels right away and forced them to set a lot well off the net,” Wilson noted. “We also are starting to get more consistent contributions from our outside hitters like Stacey, Stephanie (Blockberger; 3 kills) and Jenna (Miller; 3 kills, 6/7 serving, 5 digs); we’ve been looking for that all year and we’ll need it to continue to improve. This was the toughest match tonight and now the next one (at home versus Bluffton Tuesday) is the toughest.”
The third set was even for the first eight points until a serving error by the Mustangs gave the Lady ’Cats the lead for good. Another huge spurt — this one 11-0, with Culp’s four kills setting the pace — put the visitors up 18-5. A 4-0 mini-spurt by the hosts only stopped the bleeding briefly. After that, the Wildcats quickly finished it off, getting a spike winner off the block by Wilson to give them the sweep.
Yetman was very disappointed with her team’s performance.
“We have two personalities with this team: we can be decent and then not show up. We didn’t show up tonight at all,” Yetman added. “We just never showed up. We never got anything going. We’ve played much better than this.”
Shelby Richardson delivered 11 assists to the Mustang effort, along with seven digs from Danielle Quintero.
“We complement each other very well between the front row and back row. When Kristin and Courtnie Rostorfer (10 digs, 7/8 serving, 2 aces) are making the passes, we get good hits,” Coach Wilson added. “As far as I am concerned, we really have no weaknesses, especially in the front row. I am comfortable setting the middle or outside. We got a lot of kills but they weren’t all bombs; the girls were really looking to place the ball well. We did a lot of tipping over their one blocker (Sweigart); we were smart with that tonight.”
In the junior varsity match, the Wildcats improved to 11-2 with a 20-25, 25-22, 25-20 triumph.
Allen East visits Dola to battle host Hardin Northern and Mohawk Saturday morning.
Jefferson’s match with Bluffton begins with a 6 p.m. JV start.

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