Hornets need 5 to beat Page

By Doug Layman Correspondent
Published: September 30, 2008

FISHERSVILLE — Kim Claytor was pulling her hair out.

Wilson Memorial needed five games before finally dispatching Page County in Shenandoah District volleyball action Tuesday.

The Hornets jumped out to huge leads in all five games, but the Panthers rallied to make a match of it.

“Sometimes when you get up a big lead, you lose your intensity,” Claytor said. “Some of the girls got a bit intimidated when [Page] started to rally. We just failed to execute when we needed it.”

Wilson (10-2, 3-0 Shenandoah) had little problems with the bookend games, taking Game 1 by a 25-14 margin and then blowing away the Panthers in the finale, 15-4. In the end, Wilson left little doubt as to who the best team on the floor was.

Playing with poise and confidence, Wilson notched the first six points and cruised to a 19-7 lead in Game 1 as Kala Guy and Taijha Jones drilled several kills and Christine Coffield and Noël Bartley delivered five service points. 

The second game started in much the same way as Jones delivered two early kills and Tiffany Crosby, Bartley and Jessica Arbogast controlled the net with a point each in a 5-0 spurt as Wilson led 9-4.

The Hornets were still up by ten, 24-14, when the wheels nearly fell off.

With junior Courtney Bickers at the line, Page County reeled off eight straight points — including a pair of aces — to make it close. But trailing by one, the Panthers were called for a double hit to end the game.

“You expect the girls to continue to play with intensity and confidence,” Claytor said, “but we didn’t do that in the middle games.”

The Green Hornets attacked Game 3 with a fierce determination and raced out to a 14-3 lead behind Jones’ and Guy’s service. Guy drilled two aces in the run.

But once Page got side-out, senior Niki Zwanzig stepped to the line and scored five straight — most of them off Wilson errors — to get right back in the game, 9-15.

Wilson still led 19-11 when the Panthers finally woke up. Danni Short score six points from the service line as Anissa Price helped her with a couple of kills and Zwanzig settled the issue, 25-23, with a couple of kills of her own.

A 17-11 lead in Game 4 didn’t hold either as Page knotted the score behind five kills from Zwanzig and a couple of aces from Brittney Wolfe.

The hosts won the coin flip and Claytor started with Bartley at the service line. Bartley was perfect on her first five tries and Coffield served up the next four as Wilson stormed out to a 10-1 lead. The only points Page scored were off the face of Bickers as she stopped a Guy slam and the ball glanced off the net and hit the sideline. The Hornets stole the match with a Game 5 15-4 win.

Guy had 15 kills, 24 digs and 11 service points to lead Wilson. Bartley added 11 kills, 7 blocks and 15 service points.

Page won the junior varsity contest 25-17 and 25-21. Katie Grimm paced Wilson with three kills, seven service points and five aces while Ashley Gochenour added three kills, 12 digs and a block.