Sunday, November 15, 2009
Knights win region title
Cave Spring gets home-court advantage in the quarterfinals of the state tournament.
Photos by Jeanna Duerscherl | The Roanoke Times
Cave Spring players celebrate after scoring against Hidden Valley. Cave Spring won in three games.
Hidden Valley's Kim McDow stretches for the ball on Saturday. McDow had 10 digs.
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From Taylor Baumann's point of view, Cave Spring's volleyball team was the underdog this season.
It isn't just that rival Hidden Valley had won the past two Region IV championships. The Knights had bigger obstacles to overcome than just the Titans.
"Everyone kind of underestimated us because we're not very tall," Baumann said.
Without any magical growth potion at hand, Cave Spring coach Tamalyn Tanis had to laugh. "Everybody over 5-9 is a big obstacle to us."
That would include several Titans. But with the Knights giving each other a leg up whenever it was needed, Cave Spring beat Hidden Valley for the fourth time this season, this time in just three games 25-23, 25-13, 25-21, on Saturday on the Titans' home court.
Despite their, ahem, shortcomings, the win earned Cave Spring (22-3) the Region IV championship and home court in the quarterfinals of the state tournament on Tuesday.
"It's a big deal because we're a really close team and a lot of people haven't been to states before," said Cave Spring's Lauren Sledd.
The Titans (20-4) made the states too, but they'll have to travel to their quarterfinal game.
"I wish we played better," said Hidden Valley coach Carla Poff. "I'm disappointed we didn't play well because when you're heading into states you want to be playing well."
Tanis said she doesn't look forward to facing the Titans a fifth time which would happen if both made it to the state championship game.
"I hope not," Tanis said. "All of these games are rivalry games, it's exhausting. Neither team really plays up to their potential."
Liz Burke and Lauren Thomas had six kills each for Hidden Valley. Alexandra Martin had 12 assists and Kim McDow had 10 digs.
"They served really tough, we had a hard time with it," Cave Spring's Sledd said. "But once we got our passes up, we got it going."
"We work on defense a lot," Baumann said. "But the main thing that helps us is our teamwork. We never get down on each other."
The Knights also varied their tempo, at times catching the Titans on their heels.
"We try to play fast, to get them out of their defense," Baumann said.
Something definitely had the Titans out of sorts.
"We were not setting very well, we didn't read very well, we didn't execute very well," Poff said.
Hidden Valley led the first game 22-21 but then gave up four straight points to lose.
In the second game, the Titans trailed 11-4 and could not recover. The Knights had six aces in the game, four by Baumann. Eleven of Cave Spring's 25 points in Game 2 were on Baumann's serve.
The Titans were up 11-7 in Game 3, when Morgan Shannon got the serve for Cave Spring. The Knights won five straight points, three straight on aces by Shannon. It was neck-and-neck from then until Baumann got a chance to serve and the Knights scored four straight to take a 20-15 lead that Hidden Valley could not cut.
Shannon had 16 kills for Cave Spring. Jocelyn Kellinger had 19 digs and Sledd had eight kills and 12 digs.
Baumann had 25 assists and 18 service points, including six aces, to score one for the underdog.
