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Lady Lions win SHL volleyball title

Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
LEESBURG — Fairfield High School is going to have to clear room in the trophy case very soon.  

It wasn't easy, and the Fayetteville Lady Rockets didn't back down, but in the fifth and match-deciding game the Lady Lions did what they needed to do to get the job done, with the win giving them the Southern Hills League Division II title Monday night at Grandle Gymnasium in front of a "white-out" student section.  

"The girls showed their will and their team spirit with this win," Fairfield coach MaryBeth Hodson said. "The girls played excellent, and Fayetteville made us work for it."

This is the third league championship for the Lady Lions as they won league titles in 2004 and 2005.

"Three years ago when I took over the program, we didn't have many upperclassmen, and two of the seniors now were on those teams (Davis and Hanenkrat)," Hodson said. "All the juniors were freshmen and worked their way through the program."

After taking a team photo, Hodson thought about all the work that went into this team.

"These girls worked so hard the last three years," she said. "In the gym, they worked hard at this, and they were torching themselves by letting the game start to slip through their fingers once we got up two games.

"We got a little lazy then and it showed … I told them in the huddle 'Ladies, this is what you worked for, own this and you have to protect your own floor.'"
 
On Monday, FHS won the first two games by scores of 27-25 and 25-16. After that, the Lady Rockets rallied with two game wins of their own by scores of 25-23 and 25-15.

It was the final set that set the stage for the Lady Lions as they won 15-9, clinching the league title with a current SHL mark of 10-2.

The match-deciding fifth set began with Fayetteville leading 3-0, but the Lady Lions rallied to tie the fifth game at 4-4, then at 5-5, until Fairfield's Raeann Hurst hit the ball off a Fayetteville player to put the home team up 6-5.

After that point scored, the Lady Lions didn't trail for the remainder of the match.

Whitney Hanenkrat put FHS up 8-5, followed with consecutive points scored off serves by Kaley Davis. After Hanenkrat scored another point, making the score 12-5, Sydney Corzatt put FHS up 14-6. FHS won when Fayetteville hit the ball out of play for the Lady Lion win.

If the fifth match was thrilling, the first four games were a close second with the Lady Lions winning 27-25 and 25-16.

The first game was tied a total of seven times, with the first tie coming when Sarah Putnam scored on an ace, then she scored another point for the Lady Lions with another point off a serve.

Following numerous out-of-play points scored by each team, Lauren Larrick saved a point for FHS when she dove to keep the ball in play, as the Lady Rockets hit the ball out of bounds for a 7-7 tie.

Brenna Simmons put FHS up 9-7, and when Fayetteville were unable to return her serves, the Lady Lions led 14-9 in the first game. Later in the game, Simmons helped put FHS up 16-12 with a spike, and FHS later tallied a 19-14 advantage.  

Again, more out-of-play points were tallied by each team with Fayetteville cutting the FHS lead to 22-21, but a spike by Hanenkrat put FHS back up by two, 23-21. For the sixth time, the game was tied at 24, and Fayetteville took their first lead since the score was 7-6 early on. After Fayetteville hit their own net to tie the game at 25, another out-of-play point scored in favor of FHS and a serve off a Fayetteville player gave the first game to FHS.

The second game wasn't as close with only two ties in the match at 2-2 and 3-3. When the score was tied at three, it was Sydney Corzatt who broke the tie, and FHS went on to a 10-4 advantage and later 12-6 with a point from Makenna Corzatt on a spike.

A block at the net from Putnam and a hit by Makenna Corzatt, followed by a point from Hurst later in the second game, put FHS up 17-10.

A tip over the net in the second game by Sydney Corzatt, along with another block at the net, this time by Simmons, and points off aces by Kaley Davis put the Lady Lions ahead 22-12. The final point of the second game came with an ace by Hanenkrat as the ball bounced off a Fayetteville player.

Game three went to Fayetteville as they led 2-1 early, and the game was tied a total of seven times, the last time at 23-23. FHS had timely points from Makenna Corzatt, Hanenkrat, Putnam, Sydney Corzatt and Davis. But Fayetteville was able to score consecutive points for points 24 and 25 to force a fourth game.

Fayetteville dominated the fourth game while leading the entire game and the 25-15 win.

The Lady Lions will have Senior Night on Tuesday when they host the Manchester Lady Greyhounds, with JV starting at 5:30 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]

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