The adage says a rolling stone gathers no moss.
Tuesday night in the Cave Spring gym, volleyball senior Hannah Smith made sure the Knights kept rolling. And, rolling.
Taking the lead on senior night with an uncanny run of service points, Smith and her fellow senior members, Cecily Doyle, Avery Poulsen, Casey Fentress, Vivienne Barnhart and Kylie Angel helped the Knights to a rolling success in the 3-0 sweep over the Pulaski County Cougars.
It also marked a successful senior night win for first-year Cave Spring coach Kylee Beecher.
“This match was extremely big,” Smith noted at court side as pictures of many of the seniors were being snapped. “It’s great being part of this volleyball team and walking out before the match with the other seniors and their families with all the emotions. It was unbelievable.”
Pulaski County came to play, and after Cave Spring scored the first four points of the opening set, the Cougars roared back to go up 9-6. Cave Spring knotted things at 13, went up 19-16, and finished things off with a 6-2 run to win the opener 25-18.
“Senior night can be like that,” Smith pointed out. “I think everyone is a little nervous to start with everything going on.”
The second set was tied at 13 when Smith stepped to the service line and literally threw the knockout punch at Pulaski, firing 11 straight serves that led to Knight points and a 24-13 advantage. Although Pulaski managed a pair of late scores, it was too little, too late, as Cave Spring got the 25-15 set clincher.
Smith returned to the service line early in the third set, and by the time Pulaski found an answer, the Knights were up 8-0. The deflated Cougars fell behind 20-5 and the Knights finished with a 5-1 run for the 25-6 match win.
Junior Taylor Robertson paced the Cave Spring onslaught with 11 kills while Angel brought up 9 digs from the libero position. Serenity Mitchell led the Cougars with 4 kills. Cave Spring improved to 11-9 on the season.
“I don’t know what I had going,” Smith noted with a huge grin of her serving prowess. “This season has been a fresh start for everybody. The program is so much better and we wanted to go out with a bang tonight.”
Mission accomplished. No moss in sight.
Bill Turner
