Hawks slip past Judges

By Dennis Atwood -- sports@nvdaily.com

FRONT ROYAL -- The Skyline Hawks won a marathon volleyball match on Wednesday night. The Hawks pulled out a 3-2 (25-21, 16-25, 26-24, 27-29, 15-13) thriller over Handley in Northwestern District action. It was the Judges' third consecutive five-set match.

Both squads were tense at the start of the first set, exchanging points until they reached a 9-9 tie. The Hawks then ripped off a 10-1 run, resulting in a Handley timeout.

That broke the momentum and the Judges mounted a 7-1 run of their own to pull within 20-17.

The two teams exchanged points before Skyline junior hitter Kristina Salazar slapped a net-topping kill for the Hawks's 24th point and a Handley error gave the set to the Hawks (5-5, 1-0 Northwestern).

Handley did an about-face in the second set, and Skyline took a big dip, as the Judges built 10-5 and 16-12 leads. The Hawks closed to 16-14 before Handley finished it out with a 9-2 run with junior hitter Delaney Deavers slapping a kill for the set-winner.

"Our downfall so far this season is that roller coaster, up and down, up and down," Skyline coach Lesley Detweiler said. "We are improving in that the ups are getting longer and the downs are getting shorter."

In the third set, the Hawks made a 7-0 run, followed by an 18-4 run by the Judges to go up 18-11.

Skyline then rallied with a 12-5 run to knot the score at 23-23. The Judges took the lead on a kill by Kara Dixon. Skyline junior Tommi Michael got a kill for the Hawks, and an error by the Judges gave the Hawks a 25-24 lead. Skyline's Hannah Graham launched an ace for the 26th point and set-winner for Skyline.

"After set three, it was just state of mind for me personally," Graham said. "For the team it was to keep going to get the win. Our initial goal was to win in three [sets], but tonight, I don't know what it was, but we just needed to push ourselves to five sets."

Graham wears a large black brace on her left knee, due to a serious injury more than a year ago.

"The brace is just a security blanked for me," Graham said. "Personally, it has sentimental value because it reminds me of what happened and why I play this sport."

The Hawks were led by Steele with a match-high 14 kills and Graham with 10 kills, four blocks and two aces. Junior setter Natalie Freeman contributed 21 assists.

"This was our first district match, so we were really trying to pull this one out," Steele said. "We're trying to be the top of our district this year, so we knew we what we had to do. I try to find places that are open and just try to push it down hard, 'cause it's harder for the defense to deal with, instead of just pushing it over."

Handley (4-5, 0-2 Northwestern) had only seven service errors for the match. Dixon led with 11 kills, Diana Kellam got 15 assists and six kills, Deavers seven kills, Megan Kish 10 assists, Colleen Kopenhaver eight digs and Emma Sweeney six blocks.

"We kinda started off a little slow, then we picked it up, and I think in the fifth set we just got tired, with [this being our] third [straight] match going to five [sets]," Dixon said. "I'm proud of the way we played. We really played well as a team, I just think at the end we got fatigued."

"I just think with this five-set streak we've had here we [need to] just build and have a learning experience from that," Handley coach Lindsay Hazelette said. "Our girls are getting better at handling some crucial points and focus on those pressure points, playing better, playing smarter, definitely relying on each other to get them through those close matches."

Detweiler said she emphasized to her team in the final timeout of the last set to finish the set.

"We had that fourth set, we just didn't finish it," Detweiler said. "We needed to get out there, keep the lead and then finish it to 15."

The Hawks flirted with disaster in opening the decisive fifth set with a service error, followed by a Handley kill by Deavers and an ace by Kellam.

Steele got the Hawks back on track with an 8-2 scoring run, led by three kills from Steele and two by Graham.

Skyline then had another of those roller coaster dips, committing three attack errors to put the Judges up 9-8. Graham and Dixon then exchanged kills and Handley committed only their seventh, but crucial, service error to create a 10-10 tie.

A kill by Skyline's Cheslea Albanese and two Handley errors helped the Hawks score the next 4 points. Kopenhaver scored the Judges' final point on a kill. Skyline's Courtney Massey hit a clean kill on the back line for the match-winner.