Cave Spring left the corral gate open Thursday night in the Knights’ gym.
Hidden Valley responded by sending the Titan calvary stampeding through.
Dropping the first two sets and down 6-1 to start the third, Hidden Valley put together a remarkable comeback to topple the Knights 3-2 in both team’s regular season finale.
The 21-25; 22-25; 25-18; 25-17; 15-13 comeback ended with the Hidden Valley student section storming the court, while one coach was more than frustrated over the play of her team.
“Hidden Valley had the players that got it done, and we had players that couldn’t get it done,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis said after the shocking loss. “We practice these situations day after day. Hidden Valley fights to the end, we didn’t.”
Cave Spring, which lost to the Titans in five sets earlier this month, looked to be on cruise control to get even.
The Knights took the nip-and-tuck first set that was tied continuously through 20-20 when they finished on a 5-1 run sparked by a spectacular save by Cave Spring senior Alayna Foutz.
The Knights looked ready to send the crowd home early when they raced out to leads of 12-6 and 21-14 in the second set before Hidden Valley rallied late to close to 23-22. But, Cave Spring closed the deal with two straight points, putting the Knights one set win away from a sweep of their top rivals.
Cave Spring was up 6-1 to start the third when the wheels came off. Hidden Valley tied it at 8 before going on an 11-1 run, led by junior Annie Clark’s nine service points, that enabled the Titans to coast to the third-set win.
It was much of the same in the fourth set as Cave Spring led 6-5 when the Titans caught fire to go up 19-14. The Knights closed to 19-16, but Hidden Valley surged with a 6-1 run to send the match to the fifth-set, 15-point tiebreaker.
It looked like Cave Spring had regrouped when they took a commanding 13-9 lead in the tiebreaker, but the Titans rose to he occasion with a 6-0 run to sweep the regular season series.
“We practice situations on how you’re going to play,” Hidden Valley senior hitter Bre Lockhart said of the comeback. “Our team has plenty of energy, and in the third set we started getting the ball to fall, and started hitting spots on the court. It’s a huge win. Our goal is to make it to states, and there’s a lot of teams that want to beat us.”
“In those first two sets, Cave Spring played phenomenally,” Hidden Valley head coach Carla Ponn noted. “They played better than us, but volleyball is all about momentum. We stayed calm, kept the ball in play and stayed positive.We rallied with our defense. I’ve seen some big comebacks, but not one quite this dramatic.”
“We fell apart and lost sight of our goal,” Cave Spring’s Foutz admitted. “We have to trust each other. There’s eight seniors on this team and we need everyone to step up. And, step up now.”
“The playoffs start for us Wednesday,” Tanis added. “We’ve got to come out and play. We’ve made a huge investment in time, now we have to get everyone to invest in getting the results we want. If someone doesn’t step up, our season will end in a hurry. Right now, there’s no killer instinct.”
Lockhart led Hidden Valley with 19 kills, 17 digs and 4 aces. Senior Georgia Farthing added 17 kills and 12 digs, while senior Lexi Baylor notched 13 digs. Floor leader Drew Freeland set then table for the Titans with 53 assists.
Senior Piper Roe paced Cave Spring with 18 kills, 3 blocks and 5 aces. Foutz had 7 kills and 20 digs, with senior Meagan Harrison posting 37 assists and 6 kills. Senior Cait Flippen had 7 kills with senior Christy Goldsmith bringing up 17 digs.
Bill Turner
