Eagles sweep county archrival in straight sets
By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on September 18, 2009 1:46 PM
Juliet Jones stared at the court.
She never looked at the scoreboard during the third set and offered words of encouragement to the players. But the disappointment and frustration clearly showed on the Wayne Country Day coach's face.
Wayne Christian used three big offensive pushes and capitalized on numerous transition balls in a relatively-easy 25-17, 25-11, 25-14 victory inside Clifford Gymnatorium on Thursday afternoon. The Eagles (11-4 overall) won for just the third time in their last seven outings.
The Chargers departed 4-3 overall.
Once the three-set, non-conference affair ended, Jones took the team into the locker room. Nearly 15 minutes later, the players exited and Jones offered no comment on her team's dismal performance.
"Wayne Country Day lost several girls off last year's team that are playing college ball now," said Eagles head coach Rick Moore. "We played decent and could have served a lot better, especially in that first set.
"In the second set, we just started playing our game ... passing better, serving better and attacking. We just needed to play good volleyball."
Senior Hanna Kaler led Wayne Christian with 14 assists and six kills. Sophomore outside hitter Brittney O'Hara contributed six kills, while sophomore Jessica Swets dished out three assists.
The teams battled through eight ties in the opening set.
A hitting error and O'Hara's service ace started a short 5-0 run. Wayne Country Day pulled within 17-14 on back-to-back kills from Hannah Pearson and Kim Martell, and Pearson's ace.
Kaitlyn Kosuda answered with an off-speed kill and the Eagles tallied eight of the final 10 points.
Wayne Country Day grabbed a 3-0 lead behind two Martell aces to start the second set. Wayne Christian grabbed the momentum with a 17-4 run as Kaler, Summer Brathwaite, Kaitlyn Kosuda and Swets each provided kills.
The Chargers fell behind 5-0 in the third set and rallied for a 7-7 tie. Consecutive unforced errors enabled the Eagles to put together a monster 18-7 run to complete the straight-set win.
"Big runs are a part of volleyball," said Moore. "If you have someone who can serve tough and the other team can't set it up ... make a play on it, you can have those runs."
Pearson led the Chargers with four kills and two blocks. Martell, one of three players who return from last year's state-playoff semifinal team, contributed two kills.