Lady Colts defeat Raiders in five sets
Albemarle 25, 15, 14, 25, 15 Pungo 22, 25, 25, 23, 13
By daVI d GOuGH
Pungo Christian Academy volleyball had been dominant throughout the NCISAA sea-son when it came to Elizabeth City for a regular-season finale against Albemarle School.With just one set loss all season, the Lady Raiders boasted an undefeated season including a sweep of the Lady Colts earlier this year.
On Thursday, however, Albemarle School gave Pungo Christian all it could handle and more.The Lady Colts defeated the Lady Raiders 25-22, 15-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 in a back-and-forth match for what will likely be a share of the Tarheel Inde-pendent Conference regular season championship.
“The Lady Colts played solid and that’s what it takes,” Albemarle school coach Patsy Cooper said. “They play with heart and they play solid. When they make a mistake, they let it go. That’s what keeps them in the ballgame.”
Thursday’s fifth and deciding set, when set point is 15, was just about as close the two teams could be from each other from start to finish.Albemarle School (11-1, 10-1 TIC) held the largest leads of the tight affair with an 11-8 lead and eventually a 15-13 lead to win the match.The Lady Colts scored the final three points of the night after trailing 13-12.
Junior Samantha Nixon found space on the floor after pushing a set over, senior Taylor Stallings gave her team the lead with a kill on the most crucial point of the night and Nixon then came up with a kill to give Albemarle School the victory.
Pungo Christian (18-1, 11-1 TIC) scored three straight points for a momentary 5-4 lead and three straight again to tie the game at 11-11.There were eight ties in the shortened final set as the Lady Raiders took one-point leads five times only for Albemarle School to tie it back up immediately in each instance.
“It could’ve gone either way,” Cooper said. “We were fortunate we stayed solid the entire way.”The Lady Colts were on the brink of losing the match in the fourth set as Pungo Christian came back from seven down with an 11-2 run, thanks to multiple points from Reagan Stoop.
Down 23-21, Albemarle School came back with four straight points.Senior Brooke Perry had a kill to tie it, Nixon pushed the ball over for the lead and the Lady Raiders’ Brandi Garrish hit the ball out of bounds for Albemarle School to even up the match at two sets apiece.The Lady Colts scored four unanswered three sep-arate times in the fourth set and held an early 9-4 lead, but Pungo Christian’s abili-ty to go on big runs forced Albemarle School to have to make a comeback to keep the match alive.
The Lady Raiders used multiple big runs in the second and third sets to come back to take a 2-1 lead in the match.Pungo Christian and Albemarle School were even through the beginning of the third set with an 8-8 score, but the Lady Raiders out-scored the home team 17-6 the rest of the way with two separate 6-0 runs.
Their last 6-0 run closed out the set.The second set, with Al-bemarle School holding al-ready having won the first of the night, was also even at 8-8 before Pungo Chris-tian scored seven straight and eventually won 25-15.But the first set was the first time the Lady Raiders dropped a set in conference play all season as it helped build confidence for the Lady Colts later on.
Albemarle School was frontrunning the whole way never relinquishing the lead.Perry started the match off with a serve too hard to handle for Pungo Christian and Stallings followed that with a kill.A handful of kills from Nixon later, the Lady Colts held a 12-6 lead.Pungo Christian scored five in a row to get within 12-11, but Albemarle School pulled away again with four straight. That stretch includ-ed a couple of Perry aces.
“Our hitting was better,” Cooper said. “We played the net a little more tonight than we used to do and our serves were much better to-night.”
Stallings led with 13 kills, Perry contributed 11 and Nixon had 10.Perry also had four serv-ing aces, Nixon had 11 digs and freshman Ava Morris assisted 20 times
Albemarle 25, 15, 14, 25, 15 Pungo 22, 25, 25, 23, 13
By daVI d GOuGH
Pungo Christian Academy volleyball had been dominant throughout the NCISAA sea-son when it came to Elizabeth City for a regular-season finale against Albemarle School.With just one set loss all season, the Lady Raiders boasted an undefeated season including a sweep of the Lady Colts earlier this year.
On Thursday, however, Albemarle School gave Pungo Christian all it could handle and more.The Lady Colts defeated the Lady Raiders 25-22, 15-25, 14-25, 25-23, 15-13 in a back-and-forth match for what will likely be a share of the Tarheel Inde-pendent Conference regular season championship.
“The Lady Colts played solid and that’s what it takes,” Albemarle school coach Patsy Cooper said. “They play with heart and they play solid. When they make a mistake, they let it go. That’s what keeps them in the ballgame.”
Thursday’s fifth and deciding set, when set point is 15, was just about as close the two teams could be from each other from start to finish.Albemarle School (11-1, 10-1 TIC) held the largest leads of the tight affair with an 11-8 lead and eventually a 15-13 lead to win the match.The Lady Colts scored the final three points of the night after trailing 13-12.
Junior Samantha Nixon found space on the floor after pushing a set over, senior Taylor Stallings gave her team the lead with a kill on the most crucial point of the night and Nixon then came up with a kill to give Albemarle School the victory.
Pungo Christian (18-1, 11-1 TIC) scored three straight points for a momentary 5-4 lead and three straight again to tie the game at 11-11.There were eight ties in the shortened final set as the Lady Raiders took one-point leads five times only for Albemarle School to tie it back up immediately in each instance.
“It could’ve gone either way,” Cooper said. “We were fortunate we stayed solid the entire way.”The Lady Colts were on the brink of losing the match in the fourth set as Pungo Christian came back from seven down with an 11-2 run, thanks to multiple points from Reagan Stoop.
Down 23-21, Albemarle School came back with four straight points.Senior Brooke Perry had a kill to tie it, Nixon pushed the ball over for the lead and the Lady Raiders’ Brandi Garrish hit the ball out of bounds for Albemarle School to even up the match at two sets apiece.The Lady Colts scored four unanswered three sep-arate times in the fourth set and held an early 9-4 lead, but Pungo Christian’s abili-ty to go on big runs forced Albemarle School to have to make a comeback to keep the match alive.
The Lady Raiders used multiple big runs in the second and third sets to come back to take a 2-1 lead in the match.Pungo Christian and Albemarle School were even through the beginning of the third set with an 8-8 score, but the Lady Raiders out-scored the home team 17-6 the rest of the way with two separate 6-0 runs.
Their last 6-0 run closed out the set.The second set, with Al-bemarle School holding al-ready having won the first of the night, was also even at 8-8 before Pungo Chris-tian scored seven straight and eventually won 25-15.But the first set was the first time the Lady Raiders dropped a set in conference play all season as it helped build confidence for the Lady Colts later on.
Albemarle School was frontrunning the whole way never relinquishing the lead.Perry started the match off with a serve too hard to handle for Pungo Christian and Stallings followed that with a kill.A handful of kills from Nixon later, the Lady Colts held a 12-6 lead.Pungo Christian scored five in a row to get within 12-11, but Albemarle School pulled away again with four straight. That stretch includ-ed a couple of Perry aces.
“Our hitting was better,” Cooper said. “We played the net a little more tonight than we used to do and our serves were much better to-night.”
Stallings led with 13 kills, Perry contributed 11 and Nixon had 10.Perry also had four serv-ing aces, Nixon had 11 digs and freshman Ava Morris assisted 20 times
