Rusty play, jittery nerves and point streaks by both teams ruled the action Tuesday night in the Patrick Henry gym as the Patriots and Wildcats from Rockbridge County took to the hardwood for the volleyball season opener for both teams.
In the end, Patrick Henry kept their play together long enough to sweep the Wildcats 25-19; 27-25; 25-22. It was a match up for grabs until the final point.
“Rusty, streaky and a mistake or two,” PH head coach Patty Sheedy said afterward. “We were able to come back several times. It’s a win, so we’ll take it.”
For Rockbridge head coach Melissa Hennis, a former head coach at Cave Spring in the pre-Tamalyn Tanis era, it was more of a case of what could have been.
“We should have won,” Hennis noted. “PH is a tough team and we’re young, but we had a good game plan to serve deep and keep them on their heels. It just didn’t quite work out.”
The match took a turning point in the second game when a potential game-winning point for Rockbridge was waved off and replayed.
“It looked like we had the game and the referee decided to replay the point,” Hennis said. “He said later it should have been our point, but he couldn’t change the call.”
Instead of a 1-1 match, Patrick Henry rallied to pull out a 27-25 win, going up 2-0.
The Patriots had taken game one after pulling away midway through the game to lead by as many as 9 points before settling on the 25-19 win.
Game two saw Rockbridge roll out to a 13-2 advantage before Patrick Henry started chipping away. The Patriots tied it at 17, but the Wildcats rallied to lead 24-20, needing only one point to square the match. Aided by the replay, PH tied things at 24 before going on a 3-1 run.
PH led game three 17-7 after going on a 10 point run from a 7-7 tie. The Wildcats followed with a 9-0 run of their own, but never could get over the hump to extend the match. PH saw 4 straight match points slip away before getting the deciding 25th point to win 25-22.
Taylor Eichelberger led the Patriot power game with 10 kills. Junior Olivia Pullen had 6 kills and 22 assists, while Marilyn Bandy fired 7 aces past the Wildcat defense.
– Bill Turner
