Gate City – One of the most overused lines in Sports in describing a contest is saying that it was a game of inches. Gate City held on for a thrilling 3-2 (25-23, 25-9, 20-25, 15-25, 15-10) victory over visiting Carroll County Saturday and it was indeed a Match of inches.
The first example of inches came in fact that Gate City appeared to have six inches per player across the front line over the Lady Cavaliers. The Blue Devils resembled a college team more so than a typical High School squad.
Gate City jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the opening set and still led comfortably at 18-10 before Carroll County started to play their brand of volleyball. Senior Aza Petty willed the team back into the set and the lead by stringing together five straight serves that GCHS could not manage to get back across the net, giving her team an improbable 20-18 lead.
Petty added a Kill and Callie Harris an Ace to give CCHS a 22-20 lead but the home team finished with a 5-1 run to take the opening set, 25-23.
The second set opened even worse as the Blue Devils raced out to a 16-3 lead. Carroll County managed to pull within 20-9 but once again a Gate City run (5-0) closed out the set at 25-9.
Down 2-0 and playing along way from home on a Saturday afternoon against as big of a team they will face this season, it would have be easy for the Lady 👩 Cavaliers to mail in the third set and start the drive back home.
But Coach Cindy Edwards took her turn at trying to will the team to victory. Edwards became as animated as she could get and her team responded with a 4-0 spurt to open the third set. The teams exchanged runs throughout the set until a Petty kill made it 20-17.
Ali Wright found a bit of a groove down the stretch of the set and two of her Kills allowed CCHS to close out to set 25-20. The team avoided the sweep and continued the streak of playing great in the third set of their matches.
The theme to set four was Edwards shouting “Swing Ali” each time setter Laiken Burnett pushed the ball in the direction of Wright. While Petty (12 Kills, 7 Aces)and Harris (6 Aces and 28 Digs) led the way most of the match the start of set four belonged to Wright.
Wright finished the day with 11 Kills and Gate City had to feel they all came in one push. Wright switched up and delivered an Ace to push her team out to a 14-4 lead. CCHS extended the lead to 21-7 and coasted to the match tying 25-15 victory that ended on another kill from Wright.
Flashback to the Glenvar match earlier in the year when Carroll County went down 2-0 before storming back to win 3-2. Saturday continued to follow suit as Gate City jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the race to 15.
Edwards was busy rotating her younger players in and out, putting them in key spots and Burnett laced consecutive Aces to make it 8-8 before the Blue Devils knew it.
On the next point, Petty crushed a hit that Gate City had no hope of getting a hand out. On a day where Petty played as strong of a match as possible, she had given CCHS a 9-8 lead but the ball was ruled out. It is worth noting that the match was played without line officials, just the two at the net.
Even then, Carroll County bounced back to tie the score at 10-10. Sadly, on a day of runs exchanged by both teams, the final 5-0 belonged to the Blue Devils.
The Lady Cavaliers now sit at 5-5 on the season and 3-1 in the Three Rivers District. While victory remained inches away, Edwards was pleased with her squad.
” The same thing as always, we dig a huge hole and they battle back,” Edwards said. ” Today we just came up short but I’m extremely proud of there fight.”
Carroll County continues the busiest stretch of their season with another 2 matches. Monday & Tuesday night matches with Pulaski County coming to The Hill on Monday night.
Junior Varsity Head Coach Jason Petty and his team also made the Saturday trip. After leading 12-11 in the opening set, the team fell 25-18.
But the younger Cavaliers didn’t go quietly either. Trailing 24-18 and facing match point, CCHS rattled off five straight match saving points.
Clara DeHaven scored two Aces in the run 🏃♂️ and Ellie Heflin added a Huge block to bring the team to within 24-23. Gate City righted the ship 🚢 by scoring the final point in the 25-23 victory.
_________________________________
Note 📝 – The running 🏃♂️ Blog from yesterday included more details and some photos from the Day. It was neat to see so much of the VB family 👪 make the trip that requires going to Tennessee and then back to Virginia.
Let’s call 📞 this one, When you tell your GPS to go South on I-81until you find Blue Devils..Carroll County JV Volleyball 🏐 @ Gate City…
A lightning 🌩 delay in Murfreesboro delayed the escape from Tennessee but its still the plan to get to Southwest Virginia Community College later today to see Macie Adkins and the Flying Eagles Softball team.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 