Wednesday night’s River Ridge volleyball showdown between the Blacksburg Bruins and Cave Spring Knights saw one streak come to an end.
Fortunately for the Knights, the streak that counted most kept on rolling.
Seeing their 36-set regular season winning streak ended when Blacksburg won the opener 25-23. Cave Spring roared back to claim the next three sets in convincing style for the 23-25; 25-14; 25-19; 25-15 victory in the Cave Spring gym.
“I sort of expected it,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis said of the first-set setback. “We’ve been thrown out of our normal system for a week now.”
Two Tuesdays ago Cave Spring had defeated rival Hidden Valley before traveling to Carroll County last Thursday in a 3-0 win that amassed 147 points. Friday and Saturday the Knights played 5 matches in the Tournament of Champions showcase. Add to that the Cave Spring homecoming last weekend and the postponement due to weather of Tuesday night’s originally scheduled matchup with the Bruins, and the recipe was right for a loss.
“We didn’t come out strong tonight,” Knight junior Cait Flippen, a member of the Cave Spring homecoming court, noted after Tuesday’s match. “We were not as focused as we usually are.”
“I think we were a little tired,” power hitter Piper Roe added. “With all these matches it was like the midseason blahs.”
Blacksburg rolled out to a 12-5 lead in the opening set before Cave Spring rallied to tie things at 17.The set was tied at 23 when the Bruins scored two straight points for the 25-23 win.
Cave Spring quickly restored order in the second set. Taking a 16-11 lead, the Knights went on a 9-3 run to even the match at 1-1.
The Knights took control in the third set using their power at the net. Breaking away from a 14-13 advantage, Cave Spring went on a 9-3 run before finishing the set with a Roe kill that scattered the Bruin defense.
Cave Spring led 12-10 in set 4 when it went on a net-dominating 9-0 flurry before coasting to the 25-15 clincher.
“In the second set we woke up and stepped it up, ” Roe said of the comeback form.
“Blacksburg is a very good team,” Tanis noted. “We got frustrated after losing the first game. After that we decided to take it out on the ball.”
Limited statistics provided after the match had Roe with 12 kills and 6 blocks, while twin sisters Charity and Tessa Klimaitis combined for 11 kills.
Bill Turner
