Lady Knights battle back to top Central Christian
West Holmes coach Jim Park knew his Lady Knights were in for a battle Monday night, Oct. 12, in Kidron, where they took on the Comets of Central Christian.“I tell our kids every year, no matter what, Central plays hard all the time. They never quit, and they didn’t,” Park said. “That’s why they won game three. They refused to lose, and we played not to lose.”
West Holmes won games one and two and rallied to put the Comets away in game four to win the evening.
“We served well in game four. That’s why it wasn’t that close,” Park said.
The visiting Lady Knights won the first game 25-22 after a tug-of-war throughout the match. With the game knotted at 14, West Holmes rattled off the next four points to take control.
The second game was another back-and-forth battle until West Holmes opened up a four-point lead midway through the match and wound up winning 25-19.
The Lady Knights were in control of game three, but seemed to let up on the throttle and the Comets roared back to pull out a 25-23 triumph.
Paige Asche, who had a good night from the service line, hitting 17-of-18 service attempts with her potent jump serve, hammered home a spike for the game winner, in game four, as the Lady Knights won 25-15. Asche was part of a trio of hitters who finished with seven kills.
“We are the epitome of a team,” Park said. “We don’t have a star. We have balance. 14, 7-7-7. That’s not how we used to be in the past. We had one dominant hitter.”
Lindsy Snyder lead the four-pronged attack of the Lady Knights with the 14 kills. Asche, Lindsey Arnold and Alysia Brillhart chipped in with seven kills apiece. Brillhart also served up six aces and Emily Ditmars delivered 41 assists for the winners, who evened their record at 10-10 on the campaign.
“That’s the trademark of these kids, they never quit,” said Central coach John Finn. “I’m very pleased that they stuck with it. They knew West Holmes was good. I thought West Holmes played really well tonight, so I was pleased with our effort.”
Sandy Mullet led Central with 11 points from the service line and dished out 30 assists. Danae Stauffer slammed 17 kills.