The Lady Cougars volleyball hosted Kew Forest on Thursday in a meeting between the top two seeds in the IPPSAL league. The Lady Cougars having beat Kew Forest last week, came into the match with a 7-0 league record and already clinched the top seed making them regular season champs.
After dropping the first set 25-17, the Lady Cougars looked to come out strong. Kew Forest had other plans as they jumped out to an 8-2 lead. The Lady Cougars struggled commanding their serves early on and despite some impressive rallying, found themselves in a hole.
Kew Forest was serving with the lead. The two teams were locked in a long rally, until Xena Anderson bumped a ball that was too much for Kew Forest to handle, making the score 8-3. Anderson then scored a point on a serve, bringing the score to 8-4.
Kew Forest would regain command but the Lady Cougars battled back behind a big spike from Franchon Martinez and the serving of Dominique Genise. The Lady Cougars brought the score to 11-9, with Kew Forest stepping in to serve.
Kew Forest went on a run behind some very impressive serves. Kew Forest sent up five serves in a row that the Lady Cougars could not return, before coach Ann Boyle was forced to call time out. The streak continued though as a sixth serve hit the ground, pushing the score to 17-9.
The Lady Cougars showed their heart as they refused to quit. The Lady Cougars went on a 8-3 run that brought Kew Forest lead to only 20-17. With the game still up the air, both teams displayed great ability to set their teammates up for big hits and respond to those hits. The teams battled back and forth, until Lindsay Lake made a diving save for the Lady Cougars and Kew Forest could not respond. This gave the point on the most impressive rally of the game to the Lady Cougars. They would score one more point to bring the score to 20-19.
They would never get closer and fell by a final score of 25-21.
"We did not play well today," said Head Coach Ann Boyle. "We certainly need to believe in ourselves and our consistency needs to improve."
The Lady Cougars will be the top seed in the IPPSAL playoffs which begin next Monday. Due to the unavailability of the Martin Luther gym, the Lady Cougars will play in a neutral site game at Lexington, against an opponent still to be determined.
"The question is who we will play in the championship," said the confident Boyle. "Probably [a rematch] against Kew Forest."
By: Michael Florio
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