The Abingdon Falcons volleyball team made the long trip from far Southwest Virginia for a rare Saturday matinee matchup with the Cave Spring Knights.
No mistake about it, Abingdon came to play.
Rebounding from a first-set 25-21 loss to the scrappy Falcons, Cave Spring roared back to take the next three sets 25-9; 25-18; 27-25 as the Knights remained undefeated at 7-0.
“We just came out slow in the first set,” Cave Spring senior libero Alayna Foutz noted after the win. “We looked good in the next two sets, then lost our concentration at the end of the fourth and they got the momentum. Fortunately,we closed it out.”
Foutz was referring to the hard-fought fourth set that was tied at 6, 7, 10 and 12 before the Knights broke away from a 14-13 lead with a 6-0 run to go up 20-13. Cave Spring was serving for match-point at 24-18, when the never-say-die Falcons reeled off 7 straight points to go up 25-24 and serving to tie the match at 2-2. But, an Abingdon service error tied the set at 25 and Cave Spring scored two straight points to clinch.
“Playing Cave Spring is good volleyball,” Abingdon head coach Rachel Harding said. “We want to be known as having a top-notch program like theirs. We don’t have this kind of competition in our part of the state, and it makes it hard to master the mental things. We travel to Tennessee to play good teams, but coming here improves your whole program. We worked to press them and make them feel uncomfortable today. We were close.”
After Cave Spring fell in the opening set, the Knights went to the power game in the second, blowing out to a 17-7 lead before winning by 16 points. Cave Spring followed through in the third set, jumping out to lead 16-8 and 22-15 before trading points down the stretch to win by seven.
“I was pleased the way we dominated the second set,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis noted. “But, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Piper Roe led the Cave Spring power attack with 14 kills and 3 blocks while Shannon Holsinger had 10 kills and 3 blocks. Foutz brought up 20 digs, with fellow-senior Meagan Harrison posting up 36 assists.
Bill Turner
