Knight v-ball team downs Allen East

The Crestview Knights were able to knock off another Northwest Conference opponent, the Paulding Panthers, by scores of 25-21, 22-25, 25-11 and 25-10. Crestview is now 10-1 overall and 4-0 in the NWC.

In the first game of the match, the Lady Knights jumped out to an early lead and forced Paulding to timeouts at 9-2 and 13-4. That wasn’t the end as Paulding came back and made the score 24-21, forcing Crestview to stop and discuss things. Following the timeout, the Knights were determined to end game with the win, and they did.

In the second game, the Knights couldn’t seem to get things going their way, which created a bunch of unforced errors. Crestview trailed the entire game and used both timeouts at 11-16 and 13-20. The Lady Knights did, however, make a run in that game and, at 18-20, forced Paulding to stop and rethink things. Crestview used a lot of energy fighting back but it wasn’t enough to come out on top.

In the third and fourth games of the match, Crestview created some energy, picked up its play and battled from beginning to end to win the next two and finish the match.

“In a match like tonight, it is tough to win when we have a lot of unforced errors,” said Crestview Coach Tammy Gregory. “Any easy ball we gave to Paulding, we knew it was going to come back even harder at us.

“When the opponent has the momentum, we just need to focus and take care of the little things and be more aggressive every chance we get,” the coach added. “In the third and fourth games of the match, I was glad to see the girls re-group and take care of business.”

Coach Gregory said her Knights now have to mentally and physically prepare themselves for the big week ahead of them, with six matches in one week.

“It will be a tough, but we will focus on one opponent at a time and really stress our team motto, ‘Protect the Sweat’,” she said. “Our season is now half over and we as a team have to make sure we have no set backs and need to continue going strong and continue to make improvements each match, just as every other team is hoping for.”

The Knights will be back in action on Monday as they travel to Van Wert for a non-conference match-up.

The Crestview junior varsity team was also victorious in tonight’s match, defeating the Panther JVs 25-15, 25-12. They are now 7-4 overall and 3-1 in the NWC.

Leading the way for the Knights:

Serving

• Mekale Clifton        21/22 with 1 ace
• Danica Hicks        17/18 with 3 aces
• Taylor Springer        16/16
• Holly Genth, Taylor Hamrick and Kirstin Hicks each added an ace

Hitting

• Danica Hicks        17 kills
• Kirstin Hicks        13 kills
• Taylor Springer    8 kills
• Taylor Hamrick    6 kills

Setting

• Taylor Springer    25 assists
• Danica Hicks        16 assists

Digs

• Taylor Hamrick    19 digs
• Holly Genth        14 digs
• Kirstin Hicks and Taylor Springer        10 digs / each

Blocks

• Courtney Trigg    5 stuff blocks
• Taylor Springer & Danica Hicks     3 stuff blocks/each