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'Tis better to give than serve-receive: West exploits East deficiency in sweep
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@starlocalnews.com
It's fitting that the penultimate point of Friday's volleyball match between Plano East and Plano West was an ace by Shane Peters.
After all, the Lady Wolves (4-1 in district) had been abusing the Lady Panthers' (2-3) serve-receive all evening and their senior libero was the prime offender with five aces in a three-set victory (25-19, 25-22, 25-20).
"We've got a lot of good servers," said Brittany Bridge, West head coach. "We struggled serving during tournament season because we weren't confident serving aggressively, but we've worked on that a lot, the girls have gotten much better and what you saw tonight is a big part of what makes us successful."
"We saw that East's outside was up and their middle was over, so there was a spot we could attack," Peters said. "That run gave us a lot of energy and a lot of motivation for the rest of the match."
"We had rough serve-receive to start," added Steven Jones, East head coach.
West's run was broken on a termination by sophomore Karyn Chrisman, who had nine kills, but the Lady Wolves soon doubled the score up at 18-9 thanks to pin-to-pin offense from junior Morgan MacGilvary, who had eight kills, and senior Paige McKiddy.
"After the Plano match we saw that we needed to speed our offense up," Bridge said. "We tried some new things tonight and even though we didn't accomplish everything we wanted, we definitely saw some progress. The girls have really decreased their hitting errors from earlier in the season, so now the key for us is turning more of those swings into kills."
East pulled to within six on multiple occasions in the opener and eventually 24-19, but were finished by a kill from West senior Katie Stebbins, one of her 12 on the night.
"Our girls did a good job of coming back," Jones said, "but you can't give a good team like West that big of a lead."
In Game 2, it was the Lady Wolves chasing the Lady Panthers.
Seniors Kayla Burling, who had 10 kills, and Sammy Myers got East out to a 4-0 lead with kills and the Lady Panthers would continue to bring the pressure behind the passing of junior McKenzie Shea, who had 30 assists. East eventually led, 17-13.
Then West made its charge.
The Lady Wolves went on a 7-1 run predicated by the defense of Peters, senior Brooke Coleman and sophomore Camryn Vecera. That trio combined for 68 digs with Peters leading the way at 31, Coleman at 19 and Vecera at 18. Coleman also had 19 assists. The Lady Panthers won the next two points to pull even, 20-20, but West took five of the ensuing seven points with a block and kill by Stebbins setting the stage for a game-ending kill from MacGilvary and 25-22 win.
"We led most of the way and you can't let the other team steal a game like that," Jones said. "We just couldn't finish in Game 2."
Despite a string of three kills in five points for Coleman early in Game 3, West didn't parlay its momentum into a runaway final set as the score was tied at 9-9, 13-13 and every point in between. The Lady Wolves took the lead for good with a kill by senior Julia DeVinney and lift call against East over the next two points. A kill from Chrisman got the Lady Panthers to within 17-16, but the visitors got no closer as a dig by Peters, kill from Stebbins and kill by DeVinney moved West into the 20s and a termination from MacGilvary ended the game, 25-20, and match, 3-0.
"Our outsides, right sides and middles were making plays and making blocks tonight," Peters said.
The loss was East's third straight.
"We've had some injuries and that has affected a couple spots," Jones said, "but we also have some girls that need to step up."
West, meanwhile, is tied for first in district at the midway point alongside Plano Senior and McKinney Boyd. The Lady Wolves host the Lady Broncos at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
"That is a really big match for us," Bridge said. "I'm sure Boyd is out to prove that first match (a West sweep) was a fluke while we need a win so we can stay on top of the district."
East is on the road at the same time versus Allen. The Lady Panthers lead the Lady Eagles by one game for the final playoff spot in 10-5A.
"We are a good team," Jones said. "This was a tough match, but we will rest, regroup, have a good practice Monday and be excited and ready to go for Allen."
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