Wednesday, September 27, 2000
Wednesday, September 27, 2000 |
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Fayette County and McIntosh volleyball teams meet again By MICHAEL BOYLAN The McIntosh high school varsity volleyball team had a week of highs and lows last week, as they defeated two excellent teams in the East/West Tournament in Marietta over the weekend, including Marietta High School, ranked number two in the state, and then fell to Fayette County High School in three sets Tuesday evening. McIntosh had defeated Fayette County earlier in the season in two sets, 15-8, 15-7. McIntosh started out the East/West Tournament by taking Shiloh in only two sets, 15-11, 16-14. Excellent serving by seniors Stacey Quinn and Kathryn Murphy and juniors Megan Bartels and Tara Hamilton set the tone for the match. In game one, McIntosh refused to let a ball fall with many digs and saves; all-around great teamwork. McIntosh came back from a 7-11 deficit to defeat Shiloh in game one. Game two saw McIntosh's serves go cold after senior Murphy started out the game serving to a 5-0 lead. Shiloh then came back with 10 unanswered points to lead 10-5. McIntosh started a comback at that point with excellent net play by Hamilton and Bartels. Awesome serving by Quinn brought the score to 13-12. A well-placed dink at the net by Bartels put McIntosh up 14-12, but Shiloh battled back to 14-14. Cheatham's serves gained a Chiefs advantage at 15-14 and an amazing play at the net by Bartels finished out the game 16-14. Overall, Megan Bartels led her team in net play with six kills and five attacks. Senior Kristi Oates had three kills, five attacks and two solo blocks, and Tara Hamilton also had three kills, five attacks and one block. Bartels also led the Chiefs with 22 good receives. After consecutive losses to number one state-ranked Marist and highly ranked Harrison, the tide turned again for the Lady Chiefs in a very big way as they scored the upset of the tournament, defeating the state-ranked number two team, Marietta High School. McIntosh started out slowly, still plagued by receiving problems, and dropped the first set 15-4. The Lady Chiefs dug deep to rally in the second game, edging out a stunned Marietta team 16-14, and then, keeping the pressure on in game two, McIntosh defeated a shaken Marietta squad 15-11. Overall, McIntosh served with a 91 percent success rate, led by Cheatham with nine points and Kristi Oates with eight. Coach Taasha Moore called key timeouts to help produce possibly McIntosh's biggest victory of the season. She reported being very proud of her team, not only to defeat Marietta, ranked second in the state, but to do so coming back from a tough loss in the first set. This topsy-turvy pattern continued as McIntosh met Fayette County Tuesday night in a rematch of a McIntosh victory three weeks earlier. Fayette came out determined and strong while McIntosh revisited some of last week's errors with many missed serves and uncalled fallen balls and hits into the net. Nice kills and blocks by Oates and Bartels and five successive serves by Bartels seemed to revive McIntosh to a 6-3 lead. Errors into the net continued to plague McIntosh until Fayette came back to tie the game 8-8, and charged on to win 15-10. Christine Pritchett made key defensive plays for Fayette County, while Ashley Stoll, Megan Byrd and Kati Alley led the offense. Game two saw McIntosh victorious over Fayette. After Fayette first jumped out to a 3-1 lead over McIntosh, serves by Quinn tied the game 3-3; Fayette trailed the remainder of the game. Nice net play by Oates, Murphy and Bartels was allowed by the sets of Cheatham. The tremendous serves of Quinn, with six straight to end the game, saw McIntosh on top 15-7. Game three was a nip-and-tuck battle to the end, a game of evenly matched hits and blocks. Tied up at mid-game, McIntosh again reverted to errors, especially in receiving and missed hits, to fall behind. Megan Bartels then rallied to serve five straight to bring the score back to 14-14 and the battle resumed. A great kill by Byrd followed by Fayette's missed serve saw the score still tied 14-14. A great return by Fayette followed by two McIntosh errors ended the set with a 16-14 Fayette win. Kristin French and Sandra Finley also had key serves for the Lady Tigers in the third match. "The girls really wanted to win and worked hard to pull it off," said Fayette Coach Cheryl LaPorte. "They've been ready for it all season but are just now putting it together. Look for it to happen again in the area tournament." McIntosh and Fayette County are now 1-1 for the season, very evenly matched, and prove to be two of the most talented teams in the region. The Lady Tigers also handily defeated Riverdale in two straight games, 15-0 and 15-2. Senior setter Valerie Warr tied an unofficial school record winning 13 straight points on serve. Sandy Creek got a big win for its program last week, defeating Starr's Mill in three sets; 15-7, 8-15, 15-10. The Lady Patriots then lost to North Springs, 15-6, 15-9. Sandy Creek's overall record is 19-5. The girls faced McIntosh last night after the paper went to press. |
