Famed baseball broadcaster Dizzy Dean always offered the sage advice “Hit ’em where they ain’t.”
Although none of the Northside volleyball ream was around in the Dean era, the Vikings must have made ole Dizzy proud Monday night in the Viking gym.
Using a power game that had visiting Cave Spring reeling, Northside pulled off the 25-18; 21-25; 25-18; 25-23 win in the 3-A West regional opening round. When the match clincher hit the hardwood, a delirious Viking team stormed the court while Cave Spring players, some in tears, consoled each other knowing their season was over.
“This is a big win for Northside,” excited Viking coach Amy Crawford noted as the celebration continued around her. “It’s the first time we’ve ever beaten Cave Spring.”
It was the Northside net power that paved the way to the win, with plenty of help coming from senior setter Elena West. West set the table all evening, putting up 49 assists in textbook fashion. Once the ball was set skyward, 5’10” sophomore Aleah Keaton and 6-foot freshman Alexis Hueston were usually there to finish the deal. The pair launched 19 and 12 kills, respectfully, past the Knights defense.
“We had problems all night with their offense,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis said matter-of-factly. “We’re a young team and didn’t get the ball where we needed to. Northside has some big hitters. Charity Klimaitis played a great game for us ( game-high 21 kills) and Alayna Foutz had the best game of her career.”
Northside grabbed the advantage in game one after a 12-12 tie was followed by a 13-6 Viking run fueled by the Knights having trouble with Northside’s serve. Cave Spring evened things up in game two with a 10-6 surge that followed a 15-15 tie. The Vikings controlled game three , leading all the way for the 7-point win.
Cave Spring looked to be in great position to send the match to a game-five, 15-point tiebreaker when the Knights went ahead 23-19 and were holding the serve in the decisive game four. But, a service error by the Knights opened the door for Northside and Viking senior Katelyn Bowden went to the service line. Bowden promptly served up 5 straight points for the match clincher.
“We made some service errors all night, ” Tanis added. “You can’t miss big serves. It killed us tonight.”
“We wanted to be a step ahead, ” Crawford said of the Northside strategy. “I kept telling my girls ‘ we can do this’ . Volleyball is a game of momentum.”
“I was swinging hard,” A smiling Keaton said of her powerful kills. “Cave Spring has some great blockers but this was a team win. We didn’t want to go to a fifth game against them. No, no….at the end of game four we wanted to take it right then.”
– Bill Turner
