The standard for the Hidden Valley-Cave Spring volleyball rivalry has long been intense competition and exceptional shotmaking between two of the top teams in the state.
Thursday night in the Titan gym both teams lived up to the billing.
Coming back from an early 2-set deficit, the Titans put together a complete turnaround to stun Cave Spring 3-2 in the rowdy 212 point marathon.
Not only did it take an overtime set, but overtime in the overtime to finish off the 18-25; 18-25; 25-21; 25-23; 17-15 Hidden Valley victory.
Cave Spring will remember this one for a long time as the one that got away.
“We got up 2-0 and the girls let up,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis noted at court side after the match. “They’ve been doing that all year. They’ll build a lead then let up. You can’t do it against a team like Hidden Valley.”
For the first two sets Thursday night, it looked like Cave Spring might repeat its 3-set sweep that it had engineered against the Titans earlier this month.
Hidden Valley led 16-14 in the opening set before the Knights amped up the volume on its power game to go on a 6-0 run that included 3 kills and 2 blocks. Leading 20-16, Cave Spring finished with a 5-2 run to go up 1-0.
Set two was a mirror image. Hidden Valley led 10-8 before the Knights went on a 8-2 run for a 16-12 advantage. The Titans never got closer than three points the rest of the way as Cave Spring pulled out the second straight 25-18 win.
Showing a lot of intimidation to that point, Hidden Valley decided to become the intimidator.
The Titans pulled away from a 9-9 tie in set three to take a 19-14 lead. Cave Spring fought back to close to 19-18 and 23-21 before Hidden Valley scored the final two points to stay alive.
But, the momentum, as well as a huge jolt of confidence, hit the Titan bench.
“We found the fight,” Hidden Valley sophomore setter Drew Freeland, never one to hold back her emotions during a match, said.
Cave Spring led 16-13 in set four after a smash mouth Knight kill by front-line junior Piper Roe, but Hidden Valley tied things at 17. The Titans led 21-18 before Cave Spring fought back for a 22-all tie. Hidden Valley then went on a 3-1 push that sent the Titan gym into mayhem, and the match to a first-to-15-points fifth set tiebreaker.
Set five went back and forth. The teams were tied at 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, before a Titan service error sent Cave Spring to the service line up 14-13 and serving for the match clincher. A Knight net violation tied it at 14 and the set, needing a two-point victory margin, was still tied at 15 when the Titans scored the final two points to win it all.
“I’m very proud of my team,” Hidden Valley head coach Carla Ponn said after the nail biter. “We’re a very young team. What did it was heart. They were determined to win. Sometimes hard work will prevail.”
“We never gave up,” Freeland added. “We just pulled it out.”
Tanis noted her team’s confidence began eroding as the match wore on, as did the Knights typically strong receive-and-set that ignites the Cave Spring power attack.
“Our passing just left us,” Tanis noted. “Then our passing got so bad we couldn’t get Piper the ball. They got the momentum and we couldn’t get it back.”
Senior Erin Newell led the Hidden Valley attack with a game-high 18 kills, along with 6 blocks. Junior Bre Lockhart added 10 kills, with Freeland providing 37 assists , 13 digs and 6 service aces.
On the Cave Spring side, Roe blasted 17 kills, while twin sisters Tessa and Charity Klimaitis added 15 and 12 kills, respectfully. Cait Flippen notched 10 kills for the Knights, with Charity Klimatis knocking down 6 blocks to go along with Roe and Tessa Klimatis rejecting 4 Titan shots each.
Bill Turner
