Cave Spring’s volleyball team played the role of Houdini Monday night in the Knight gym.
They spent most of the evening escaping disaster.
In a match dominated by mistakes and lackluster play on both sides of the net, Cave Spring managed to outlast the visitors from Spotswood 3-0 (25-19; 25-23; 25-18), to advance to the 3A West semifinals Tuesday night at Brookville High School.
“We did not play up to our standards,” Knight senior Alayna Foutz noted afterward. “We came out flat with no energy. and just didn’t seem to be motivated. It was probably a C-minus or D. We didn’t know anything about them (Spotswood) as far as their style of play.”
Spotswood, on the other hand, was well aware before their trip from Penn Laird that they were jumping into the fire against the usually dominating Knights.
“We played nervous,” 15-year Spotswood head coach Jim Roth noted after the season-ending loss by his Trailblazers. “We looked at all the banners, and didn’t come out strong. We had too many unforced errors. That’s not our typical play. We haven’t played in that many big games.”
Spotswood gave the Knights plenty of assistance all night, none more than the opening set when the Blazers committed 5 service errors and 3 net violations to hand Cave Spring the win. Although the Knights rolled out to leads of 7-1 and 18-8, Cave Spring allowed Spotswood to close the gap to 23-18 before senior Cait Flippen scored on a serve off the top of the net and senior Piper Roe put down the set-clincher on one of her signature kills.
The Knights opened the second set with a 7-1 run, before Spotswood took advantage of numerous Cave Spring misplays to give the Blazers their first lead of the night, 21-20. Kills by Lauren Slough and Morgan Starnes fueled a 4-0 Cave Spring run to put the Knights at set-point, 24-21. The Blazers fended off two set-clinchers by Cave Spring before ending their chance to knot the match when they sent the next volley under the net.,
Spotswood continued with unforced errors to open the third set, as Cave Spring jumped out to a 15-4 lead. But, the Knights returned the favor with errors of their own, allowing Spotswood to close to 20-18. The Knights then rode a Roe kill along with a double hit and long return by the Blazers to finish with a 5-0 run for the match-clincher.
“We were out of sync and not in rhythm all night,” Cave Spring head coach Tamalyn Tanis noted. “Hope (Sitze) and Piper came through with their serves that pulled it out. We’ve been in transition all year, up-and-down with new lineups since we lost Shannon Holsinger (knee injury).
Cave Spring faces another elimination match Tuesday night when they face Western Albemarle. A Cave Spring win would guarantee the Knights an appearance in the state semifinals.
“We have to come together and realize that if we lose (Tuesday), our season is over,” Foutz said. “We have to play as a team.”
Roe led Cave Spring with 13 kills and 5 aces, while Sitze split the Blazer defense with 6 aces. Senior setter Meagan Harrison put up 26 assists for the Knights
Bill Turner
