VolleyballComeback

Volleyball: Vikings come-from-behing to beat Warriors
Last week, Northern Vance recorded a moral victory in a hard-fought 3-0 conference loss to Chapel Hill. Thursday, the Vikings earned a win on the scoreboard, winning their first Carolina 3A match 3-2 (23-25, 24-26, 25-13, 25-13, 16-14) at home over rival J.F. Webb.

After Northern controlled Sets 3 and 4 to even the match, both teams were in for a dogfight in the final game, with neither team leading by more than two points.

The Vikings took a 13-11 lead, but a kill from Kelly Newton and a Warrior block tied the game.

The two sides traded points before a Webb error gave Northern the advantage. The Warriors couldn’t return a serve from Natalie Reavis and the Vikings took the set 16-14.

“They needed it. Man, did they need it,” said coach April Abbott, whose Northern team improves to 1-2 in conference play. “Tonight, they came in knowing they would have to compete. It was about who wanted it more, who had the most heart after it.”

Webb falls to 1-3 in conference and 5-7 overall.

“The best team won, simple as that,” said Warriors coach Ellis Crews. “It’s not one we should win — not when we play like that. All the games that we lost, we deserved to lose because we didn’t play to win it.”

Northern came out on fire in the third set, scoring nine straight after Webb scored the opening point. Kaylin Owen capped the rally with a kill assisted by Becca Esquivel.

The Vikings’ largest lead of the set was at 16-4. The Warriors twice scored three straight, but Northern responded by taking the final five points of the game.

“I always say you practice to win, but if that’s what you put into it, that’s what you get,” Crews said.

Set 4 was more of the same as the Vikings charged out to a 13-5 lead. Hannah Thompson had three straight aces during that spell. Northern came close to double-digit aces on the night.

“I told them they had to step up today,” Abbott said. “If you want to earn your spot serving, this is your time. And they completely stepped their game to A-plus level.”

Only twice in the fourth set did Webb rally for two straight points as Northern took the 25-13 win, tying the match at 2.

“They were banging balls. If those girls could play like that all the time, we could give anybody in this conference a run for their money,” said Abbott. “It’s about being consistent and our girls haven’t figured out what consistency means yet.”

Leading Northern were Thompson (three aces, 16 digs, 17 kills, two blocks), Esquivel (eight kills, one block, 32 assists), Reavis (two kills, four aces, 34 digs), Owen (eight kills, eight digs, one ace), Rebekah Edwards (two blocks, 12 kills, eight digs), Katie Wilson (three blocks, 10 kills), Melissa Elliott (14 assists) and Lauren Abbott (three blocks).

Northern was close in the first two sets, but both times Webb found ways to win.

In the second set, the Warriors scored six straight points to take a 16-9 advantage. Northern scored three straight of its own, ending with an Abbott ace to trim the lead to 17-13.

Webb pushed its lead back to five twice before the Vikings made their run. A kill from Thompson tied the game at 21 for Northern.

The lead changed hand three times before the Warriors got a kill from Newton and the game-point with Amanda Music serving.

“I think they were just kind of shook because they lost the first game,” Abbott said of her team. “It’s about them learning that they can win, not that they have to keep themselves from losing.”

Leading Webb were Newton (11 service points, three aces, 16 digs, 15 kills, four blocks), Music (12 service points, three aces, three digs), Morgan Davis (3 service points, one ace, 11 digs, 31 assists, nine kills, two blocks), Sarah Thomasson (two digs, nine kills, six blocks), Ginny Brooks (3 service points, 25 digs, five kills, one block), Taylor Loftis (nine service points, seven digs) and Brittani Moore (18 digs).

Northern opened the first set by taking the first four points and maintained control for much of the opening frame.

An Owen kill gave the Vikes a 21-15 lead, but Webb got hot, scoring six straight to tie the game at 22.

After Northern went back up, a Newton kill tied the set again at 23 and the Warriors went ahead when the Vikings failed to return another Newton hit.

Webb took the final point of the game when Northern was penalized for taking a timeout it didn’t have. The Vikings had already used their allotted two timeouts in the set. First-year coach Abbott called the mishap a “rookie error.”

Northern returns to its home floor Monday at 6 p.m. against Athens Drive while Webb hosts Cardinal Gibbons on Tuesday.

Contact the writer at kholtzman@hendersondispatch.com.

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