Aug. 15, 2012 — Consistency was the name of the game for the East Carter Lady Raiders volleyball team in last Tuesday’s season opener against Fairview, winning 3-0.
East Carter Head Coach Cathy Harris says playing consistent is something her young team must continue to do in order to attain their overall goals.
“It was good to see us come out here and play a solid game tonight to open the season,” Harris said. “We kind of had a tough spike-o-rama, and we are still pretty young considering we are a team of mostly sophomores. Consistent play and improvement will be what decides our fate this year.”
After jumping out to an early 7-0 lead in the first set, East saw the Lady Eagles climb back into the match to cut the lead to 8-7.
An emphatic spike by outside hitter Jordyn Wiler pushed East’s lead to 9-7, and the girls in blue never looked back, capping the set with a thundering serve by Sara Howard.
Wiler, a big contributor to East’s success last season, talked about her team’s first solid outing.
“As a whole, I thought we played really well,” Wiler said. “We hadn’t been communicating very good as a team lately, but I am glad we were able to start to see that here tonight.”
Game two followed the same formula as the first, with East’s girls jumping out to an early 8-0 lead, only to see it relinquished, allowing hope for Fairview.
The Lady Raiders once again pulled away when the game reached the teens, as sophomore Whitney Gollihue and Wiler finished the job late in the match with critically placed serves to give East the 25-12 victory.
Wiler said placement is a key when attempting to have a successful serving game.
“I just try not to kill the ball when I step up there. It’s more about finding the gaps in the defense, and if you can be accurate in delivering to those spots, you can be a good server.”
The final set of the evening resulted in a shutout victory for the Lady Raiders, with Gollihue giving Fairview something to remember with several violent, late-game spikes.
After downing Fairview, the Lady Raiders suffered a minor setback to top 16th Region competitor Ashland Blazer on Thursday, falling 0-3 at home, before defeating Bath County over the weekend 3-0.
We will have more on Lady Raiders’ volleyball in next week’s edition of the Journal-Times.
Grant Stevens can be reached at gstevens@journal-times.com or by telephone at 1-800-247-6142.
