Hidden Valley courtside volleyball announcer Dave Ross threw a new twist into Thursday night’s regular season finale against Southwest County rival Cave Spring.
While announcing the rosters of both teams in the pre-match introductions, Ross added a humerous nickname to each Titan player that drew laughter from the large crowd and thumbs-up from the Titan girls.
He probably could have limited the nicknames to “Smasher” or “Laser” and still been right on target.
Riding the power game the Titans have perfected all season, Hidden Valley rolled to the convincing 24-14; 25-8; 25-14 three-set sweep of the Knights to finish the regular season best-of-5 set matches 21-0. The Titans lost a pair of showcase best-of-three set exhibitions earlier this season against West Virginia powerhouse Musselman.
Despite Thursday’s Senior Night festivities for the six Titan upperclassmen that included each player’s family members, the distraction had little effect on the performance that would follow against a Cave Spring team that has made great strides in returning its volleyball program back to prominance.
“I actually think senior night helped,” Hidden Valley freshman sensation Caleigh Ponn noted afterward. “We were really focused as a team on sending our seniors out in style and staying undefeated. This whole team has bigger goals on down the road.”
Hidden Valley established itself in the opening set, blowimg away from a 7-6 lead to go up 17-8 advantage via its power game that can unsettle any opponent. Cave Spring, which finished the regulat season at .500, did an excellent job of keeping the ball up with passes and sets, but once the ball heads into the Titan zone, digs and sets inevitably lead to a laser shot above the net or an unexpected dink into the opponent’s zone that drops to the bottom of the well before a defensive player can react.
“We tried everything to hold our own,” Cave Spring senior outside hitter Gracie Walker said after the match. “Hidden Valley has a very good team,…. a very good team.”
The Titan lead was still at 9 points, 23-14 before senior Emily Dudley served up the final two points for the set winner.
Set two was all Hidden Valley. Riding the service of libero Abbey Burton, the Titans jumped out to a 9-1 lead and eventually pushed their advantage to 23-5 before closing the set.
Cave Spring stayed closein the early going of set-3 with impessive play by sophomore middle hitter Sarah Crawford and senior libero Blair Emery. Following a 5-5 tie, Hidden Valley went on a power surge to go up 17-8 and the nine-point lead was more than enough. The Knights would get no closer than six points the rest of the way, and closed out match-point at the 24-14 mark.
When all was said and done, the Titan’s Cam Davenport, Faith Mitchell, Abbey Crosser and Ponn had scored 37 of Hidden Valley’s 75 points on kills.
Hidden Valley head coach Carla Ponn, who has two volleyball state championships since arriving at the school, reflected on the perfect regular season while standing on the court after the win.
“I not sure, but I don’t think we’ve ever had a perfect regular season. Coaching these girls is fun. I really don’t have to coach them. They know what to do, how to get it done and are all dedicated.”
As for coaching her daughter, Caleigh, this year, brought a smile.
‘”I’ve waited a long time and it’s great that she’s finally a freshman. Three more years sounds great as well.”
Bill Turner
