Knights Take Volleyball Opener in 3-1 Win Over Jefferson Forest

 Tuesday night’s Cave Spring volleyball opener wasn’t the typical smash-mouth style indicative of a Knights team that has won five state championships under head coach Tamalyn Tanis since 2002 and are a perennial powerhouse even in the off-years. Chalk it up to the first game of the season or the fact that the 2013 edition only has three seniors on the squad.

The Knights nonetheless managed to recover from a second-game loss, and walked away with a 3-1 (25-14; 22-25; 26-24; 25-22) win over the visitors from Jefferson Forest that entered the match with a 0-2 record.

“It was our first game and it wasn’t pretty,” Tanis admitted afterward. “I’m still deciding on a lineup. I tried one in practice yesterday and another one tonight. We’ll get it worked out. There was a lot of uncertainty in our play and a lack of urgency. We were being too cordial to the other team.”

Things looked status quo in the opening game of the best-of-five match when Cave Spring jumped out to a 16-6 lead and cruised to a 25-14 win with Tanis making numerous substitutions. Game two saw the Cavaliers from Bedford County stay close throughout with the game tied at 10, 13, 15, 19 and 21. JF went on a late 4-1 run to shock the home team with the 25-22 win that evened things up at one game apiece.

Cave Spring came out of the huddle to start game three and seemed ready to dominate when they bolted out to a quick 11-3 lead. The Cavaliers, however, gradually cut the deficit and would eventually lead 20-18 before the Knights regrouped and pulled out of a 24-24 tie with a decisive kill by junior Charity Klimaitis and a JF double-hit on the subsequent serve that gave the Knights the 26-24 win. In the game-four clincher Cave Spring pulled away from a 7-7 tie with runs of 5-1 and 6-2 to secure the 25-22 win.