A continuous net battle sparked fierce rallies between the Hot Springs Lady Trojans and visiting Fountain Lake Thursday night at Trojan Fieldhouse as the Lady Cobras ultimately claimed the non-conference match in straight sets.
Junior Siera Peters shouldered two aces to give Fountain Lake (3-0) an early 4-1 lead, but the Lady Trojans (2-1) rallied behind Jurnee Hicks after the junior knotted the score 12-12.
"They're stepping up into their roles, and I'm really pleased with them," said Hot Springs head coach Deana Franklin. "I don't like a loss anymore than they do, but I'm not disappointed in their effort. It gives us things to keep working on tomorrow."
After eight straight serves with one ace by junior Presley Hamric, the Lady Cobras jumped out to a 23-12 lead en route to a 25-14 win of the first set.
The Lady Trojans battled to gain an early 6-1 lead in the second set, triggered by some front-line work and three straight serves, including a pair of aces by junior Emma Campas.
Fountain Lake rallied for five straight points to spark a run that knotted the score at 7-7. Both teams traded service while the Lady Trojans remained ahead and within reach before the Lady Cobras took their first lead over Hot Springs 12-11.
"We struggled a little because we were out of our regular rotation with a couple injuries so I had to put in some players that we weren't quite comfortable with, so we kind of got a little out of rhythm," said Fountain Lake head coach Tina Moore. "When they got used to it, it clicked a little bit better so we had better intensity after that. But we kind of struggled on the front end."
The Lady Trojans rallied behind Hicks to pull within four-points of Fountain Lake's 20-16 lead before a front-row power play by junior Carena Bledsoe ended the set in the Lady's Cobras' favor, 25-17.
Junior Gracie Peters put up five straight service points, including two aces as the Lady Cobras took an 8-2 lead.
"[The starters] all played together last year because they're all returners, so they're kind of familiar with each other," Moore said. "The only pieces that were out of place tonight were the couple of girls that aren't used to playing with that rotation, but I thought they did a really good job.
"It wasn't really them being in there, it was just getting out of rhythm from the rotation itself. Sometimes that kind of throws girls off, but it clicked and worked out pretty good."
Leading 16-9, Fountain Lake senior Emoree Martin broadened the gap after serving for five points to stretch the lead 21-9 before losing service one last time.
The Lady Trojans responded with a five-point run of their own, rallying behind senior Iona Island on a power play followed by Hicks serving up two aces to bring the score closer to 24-15, but Fountain Lake's lead proved too much to overcome as the Lady Cobras broke Hicks' serve to take the match 25-15.
"It's a loss and you never like a loss, but overall everything wasn't bad, we did some good things," Franklin said. "Had a few good hits, a few good looks at the floor -- killed ourselves a lot on little stuff.
"We had several bad serves which we can't afford to have; that's one of the things that we've talked about early in preseason that hopefully we can go five with a lot of folks. We're not going to always be the best team on the floor, but hopefully we can take care of some mistakes, go five, pick up some wins and have it three and two our way not two and three the other way."
Hot Springs sophomore Bella Timm snagged one block, one ace and three digs and junior Alexia Faulkner added two while Island paced her teammates with seven kills and two digs. Campas tallied five digs with one assist and three aces while junior Katyra Johnson added two aces with one dig and two blocks. Hicks finished with three digs, four aces, six kills and two blocks.
"We don't quit, we're scrappy, they battle," said Franklin. "Fountain Lake's a good team. Give it to them: they're a good team. We're relatively young, and they're just starting to gel -- trying to figure each other out. Hopefully we rise at the right time. We've got conference starting on Tuesday, and that's what we do all of this for: to get ready for that.
Peters garnered two digs and four aces for Fountain Lake while Martin paced the Lady Cobras with 14 digs, four aces, five kills and one assist. Hamric racked up seven kills and one ace while Bledsoe added one ace, one block and five kills. Sophmore setter Sophie Skinner led the team with 19 assists, and senior libero Erin Graves added five digs, an ace and one kill.
*In the JV match, the Lady Cobras outmatched Hot Springs 2-0. Neither of the teams took a major lead in the first set while remaining within two points until Fountain Lake sophomore Brayden White served two aces en route to a 25-17 win over the Lady Trojans.
After trading a few serves, Fountain Lake jumped out to an early 7-2 lead going into the second set as Gabriella Gonyer approached the line, serving five straight for the Lady Cobras.
The junior varsity squads battled out each point, working the floor to find open spots. Hot Springs trailed Fountain Lake 17-14 before Sevannah Lawson picked up a pair of aces to put the Lady Trojans within 19-18.
Hot Springs gave up four more points before earning three straight under Kailey Bearskin's service. Fountain Lake capitalized on a missed serve by the Lady Trojans before taking the 25-22 win.
Gonyer paced her teammates with seven digs, two kills and two aced serves. Audi Overacker tallied 10 assists while White collected two kills and three aces. Peters had three digs and two kills while Ava Compton added a pair of assists.
Lawson logged three digs and two aces for the Lady Trojans while Lori Martin added one kill and three digs. Alexia Faulkner had two digs with one assist.
Sports on 09/01/2019