Central volleyball coach Holly Ware saw on the Lady Pounders home courtTuesday night what the second-year coach had seen in her mind for most of this volleyball season.
“Our numbers are not impressive, but they also don’t show what I know this team is capable of being.
It has been an emotional roller coaster this year from one game to another, one match to the next, and from one week to the next week, but through it all I have seen glimpses of what these girls can do.Tonight I got to see a lot of things come together. It has been an exciting week,” said Ware shortly after Central knocked off East Ridge in a District 6-2A, 3-0.
The Lady Pounders secured the big district win with scores of 25-14, 25-14, and 25-19 to finish the week with a perfect 3-0 record and send them into the last couple of weeks of the regular season itching for more success.
“I see a very good team when I look at us. It has been a good week for us, especially to see things finally starting to click. We are a close bunch of girls; we are a family both on and off the court. We sat down and had a talk recently and I knew this week was coming, but I think our best days are still ahead of us,” said hitter and middle blocker Taniya Crowder, who along with Olivia Rawl, did an outstanding job controlling the net in the match.
Despite both teams coming into the contest with a combined five wins between them, there was a definite air of confidence for Central from the very beginning and it showed in the way the Lady Pounders handled both of the first two games.
In the finale, though, it really showed when the Lady Pioneers showed a little bit of spunk and found themselves knotted at 11-all midway through the match. Central (4-14) reeled off eight of the next 10 points at that stage and East Ridge never recovered.
“We made a ton of mental mistakes from service errors to serve receive and it was obvious our girls just weren’t into it tonight. Our heads were all over the place and it killed us and any chances we had. It was a lack of focus. We had one or two who mentally weren’t into it at times and then when they did pick it up, someone else wasn’t into it. Disappointing night from our end,” said East Ridge coach John Hodges, who felt like the match was a chance for his girls to add to their two wins on the season.
As it turned out, though, it was a shot of confidence in the arm for the girls in purple and gold.
“This whole week has done wonders for our confidence,” Ware added. “I thought tonight was by far our best match and it puts us in a position to perhaps grab that No. 2 seed for the tournament, depending on how we carry this over into next week.”
Central with wins over Howard and East Ridge will face Hixson on Tuesdayfor Senior Night and a win there would give the Lady Pounders a two seed behind East Hamilton.
Crowder, Rawl and Jasmine Mosely were all three key to Central performance and each had four kills with Crowder adding several blocks to thwart East Ridge’s front line. Setter Gracee Webb had nine assists and nine digs to lead the defense.
East Ridge was led by hitters Meg Hiu, Eryka Greer and Bailey Stricklen and Savanna Aymon had a nice defensive game. Monica Hubbard also ran off a string of service points in the finale that got the lady Pioneers within 18-15 before Mosley and Crowder took over at the net to put it away.
CENTRAL STATS:
Gracee Webb 9 assists, 3 kills, 9 digs
Jasmine Mosely 4 kills
Taniya Crowder 4 kills, 3 blocks
Carmen Crabtree 4 assists
Kaydee Reidel 3 digs
Zariah McDonald 5 digs
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com or via Twitter @beachnut1134)