Titans Edge Knights In 5-Set Volleyball Thriller

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Hidden Valley’s Georgia Farthing (below the H) sends a shot into the Cave Spring front line Tuesday night as teammates Lauren Harrison (#7) and Taylor Gray (#6) look on.

Some things are always constant in the Hidden Valley-Cave Spring volleyball rivalry.

Spectacular play, smash mouth kills and raucous gyms to name a few.
Tuesday night in the Hidden Valley gym, things were status quo as the Titans held off Cave Spring 17-25; 25-18; 25-23; 22-25; 15-12, handing the Lady Knights their first loss of the season.
The pre-game speculation Tuesday was whether Hidden Valley could find a way to neutralize Cave Spring’s relentless power at the net. The Titans found just enough punch, taking advantage every time Knight senior hitter Piper Roe went to the bench.
“That was our plan,” Hidden Valley head coach Carla Ponn said on taking advantage of Roe’s leaving the court in favor of substitutions. “Cave Spring is way bigger than us. When Piper was off the court, that’s when we went after them. We wanted to keep her off the court.”
One thing that was unusually prevalent Tuesday was unforced errors by both teams, a factor noted by both coaches.
“We made a lot of errors, but we kept our composure,” Ponn noted. “We had seven players contributing at all times tonight, so I’m very happy overall. We missed points at key times, but Drew Freeland is the glue that sticks us together.”
“Both teams made a lot of errors, but the ones we made came at horrible times,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis pointed out. “Tonight, when Piper was off the court, their outside hitters were better than my middles. Drew dictates with the flow of the game, and we couldn’t get the ball to Shannon (Holsinger). We had normally reliable kids make mistakes. It’s better to have this in October than late in the season.”
Cave Spring looked ready to dominate when they broke away from a 15-15 tie in the first set, riding Roe’s power game to finish with a 10-2 run for the win.
Hidden Valley answered in the second set, holding a 19-17 lead before finishing with a 6-1 surge to knot things at one set each.
Cave Spring was in great shape in the third set, leading 17-12 and holding the serve, before an unforced service error opened the door for the Titans. The set was tied at 19 when Roe went long on two straight kill attempts, and Hidden Valley held on for the 25-23 win.
Cave Spring led 21-20 in the fourth set when a Roe slam, a Hidden Valley misplay and another Roe kill put the Knights at set-point. Hidden Valley scored one point, but Roe sent a kill through the Titan defense to send the match to a 15-point, fifth set tiebreaker.
Things were tied at nine in the fifth when Hidden Valley went up 11-9 on Bre Lockhart’s kill. Shannon Holsinger answered with a slam, but Cave Spring had a service error to restore the Titan lead at 12-10. Hidden Valley then pushed its advantage to 14-10 before holding off the Knights last-gasp effort, putting down the match-clincher with a 14-12 lead.
Lockhart led Hidden Valley with 18 kills, 6 digs and 4 aces. Senior Georgia Farthing slammed down 14 kills to go along with 10 digs. Freeland added 8 kills and 32 assists.,
Roe had a game-high 23 kills and 7 blocks for Cave Spring. Holsinger had 14 kills, with Alayna Foutz bringing up 25 digs. Meagan Harrison provided 40 assists in the Knights’ effort.
“We played as a team the whole time tonight,” Titan Georgia Farthing said outside the Hidden Valley locker room. “I was happy with my play at the net, but I missed way too many serves. In a match like this, things are going to happen.”
Bill Turner

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