By John Estridge
Franklin County had a furious rally in the first set against Connersville to win, 25-23.
But, after that, Lady Spartan junior Erika Smith dominated the net from her middle hitter position to lead her Spartans to a 3-1 victory over the host Lady Wildcats Saturday afternoon, August 22. The four-set scores were: 23-25, 25-15, 25-14, 25-18.
Unofficially, Smith had 38 kills over the four games. It seemed like every time the Wildcats rallied during the day, Smith ended the rally with a kill. In the third game, she was at the service line serving up the winning point and won it by pounding down a kill from the back row.
In the first game, the Spartans sprinted out to a 13-5 advantage before the Wildcats were able to put anything together. At that point, the Spartans seemed to self destruct with hitting and service errors, giving the Wildcats a start to their rally.
And the Wildcats were also playing good volleyball. Sophomore Kassidy Schell began prowling the net, getting Wildcat points off dinks and kills. She also gained five points serving with one of her serves being an ace during the rally.
FC battled back to a 17-17 tie before Spartan coach Stephanie Smith signaled for a timeout. The one-minute respite seemed to help her Spartans as they retook the lead and went up by as many as two points late, 20-18.
But again the Wildcats would not be denied. Juniors Alex Gillman and Kacie Williams scored four late points on serves with each Wildcat garnering an ace in the run. Williams’ ace prefaced another Stephanie Smith timeout with the score 23-22 in favor of the home team.
A Schell kill brought the Wildcats within one point of winning the set, 24-22. However, Erika Smith crossed up the Wildcats with a dink to bring her Spartans within one 24-23. Gillman then made an excellent dig during the ensuing point, and Connersville’s talented freshman hitter Hailey Sembach was called for being in the net, ending the game in the Wildcat favor.
At the start of the second set, it seemed the Wildcat momentum could not be stopped. FC led by five, 8-3, before a Spartan timeout. This time the strategy worked as the Spartans went back on the floor and initiated a 9-1 run to take a three-point lead, 12-9. Again, Erika Smith was huge in the run, garnering five kills. FC tried to hang on, cutting the Spartan advantage to three several times down the stretch, but the Spartans net play was too much, winning 25-15.
FC did not give up at that point, but the front-line hitting advantage was too much for the Wildcats to overcome with the Spartans taking the last two sets, 25-14 and 25-18. In the third game, FC junior Kylie Lea had a great service game, scoring on seven straight serves at one point with three of them aces.
In that final set, the Wildcats again took an early lead, 7-3, before the Spartans once again rallied, taking a lead they did not relinquish at 11-10. FC cut the Spartan advantage to five, 20-15, but, again, two straight Erika Smith kills ended the rally.
Unofficially for FC, Schell had six kills and five dinks.
Connersville is 1-2 overall and 1-1 in the Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference while the Wildcats are 1-2 and 1-1, respectively.
FC won the Junior Varsity contest in straight sets, 25-17 and 25-18.
In the first set, junior Michaela KK Ferman had six straight service points after the Wildcats took the first point on a Spartan hitting error, to put the Wildcats up 7-0.
And in the second game, service runs from Lea and junior Hadlee Hornsby led the Wildcats to the sweep.
FC is back in action Tuesday, August 25, when the Wildcats play host to Eastern Indiana Athletic Conference foe Batesville. JV action begins at 5 p.m.