Slumping Generals no match for visiting Panthers

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By Dennis Atwood - sports@nvdaily.com

QUICKSBURG -- Visiting Page County had to tough out an extra points third set to sweep Stonewall Jackson 3-0 (25-20, 25-17, 28-26) in Shenandoah District volleyball action Tuesday night.

It was the Panthers' first sweep win, and the Generals' 13th consecutive loss following a promising 3-0 season start that included a win over perennial powerhouse Strasburg and two wins over their other county rival, Central.

Stonewall Jackson (3-13, 0-12 Shenandoah) fought valiantly in the third set, maintaining a three- to four-point lead after consecutive service aces by Keyana Phelps put the Generals ahead, 15-11.

An ace by Chasity Murden made it 19-16, then Page County senior hitter Bethany Wentz spiked her first kill of the match and followed up with a kill to the baseline corner, and a kill by Kayla Dean knotted the score at 19-19.

A Page County (8-4 overall and Shenandoah) attack error and a Generals service error made it 20-20.

A kill by Kayla Dean, followed by libero Alayna Breeden launching the Panther's 12th ace, put Page County up 22-20.

The Generals got two kills by Alison Singleton and kills by Phelps and Erin Goodier, with the Panthers answering with kills by Kayla Dean and Brittney Donovan, a block by Celia Dean and an attack error to create a 25-25 tie.

The Generals gained their 26th point on a soft spot kill by Ashlie Clar, then the lead referee ruled that the Generals hit the ball a fourth consecutive time. Although the team, and many of the spectators, didn't see the fourth hit, the playing fault gave Page County its 26th point.

Stonewall Jackson's 14th attack error gifted the Panthers their 27th point, followed by Donovan's 11th kill on the night, for the 28-26 set, and match-winner.

Donovan, a senior hitter, also smacked the set-winning kill in the second set, totaled a co-match-high 11 kills and scored three aces.

"In the first [set], I don't think we'd quite gotten off the bus yet," Donovan said. "We had to kind of pull it together in the next two [sets]. This was the first [match] we've won by sweeping this year. That feels good.

"I had to get more confident, and I got more consistent during the match, with hits and getting stuff in the court. We all had to do that as a team."

In the first set, the Generals moved out to commanding 11-4 lead.

Trailing 13-7, the Panthers went on a 6-0 run with three kills by Kayla Dean, two aces by Breeden and kill by Celia Dean to create a 13-13 tie.

Knotted at 19-all, the Panthers closed out the set with a 6-1 run.

After an early 3-3 tie, Page County led throughout the second set, gaining margins of 16-5, 19-11, and 24-15 before Donovan got the set-winning kill.

Kayla Dean joined Donovan with 11 kills for the Panthers.

"Tonight, our main focus was consistency, and we did it, finally," Panthers coach Jeremy Kump said. "They were able to regain their focus and come back after committing errors."

During the losing streak, three Generals starters were off the team for seven matches, for unspecified reasons, and returned four matches ago.

The Generals have been unable to swim out the riptide keeping them off course, being swept 10 times and managing to win only three sets, one each in three of those contests, during the precipitous decline.

Phelps led the Generals with seven kills, supported by Haylee Bowers with five.

"We played our heart out," Phelps said. "We did really well in practice yesterday and we tried to carry that over today because we've been lacking it a little bit. Today, in the first [set], we got 20 points, and we haven't gotten that many since we lost our three starters. Now that we have them back, we're slowly making improvements."

"I feel like we took some pretty good strides tonight," Generals coach Jamie Armentrout said. "The girls worked well together, they hustled well. At the end, we just fell short and Page [County] played a little better than we did."