Lady 'Cats defeat rival Fairfield in 3 games
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
MOWRYSTOWN -- It didn't come without a third-set battle, but the Whiteoak Lady Wildcats swept rival Fairfield in three games Tuesday night by scores of 25-15, 25-16 and 26-24 for the Southern Hills League win.
For those in attendance, the difference was easily senior Jessica Caplinger.
When on the court, the front of the net belonged to the WHS senior.
"(Jessica) was the difference when she was on the court and not out of the rotation," WHS coach Don Rahe said. "When she is up front, we are really good."
The win puts the Lady 'Cats at 2-0 on the season, coming back after being down two sets to Batavia at WHS on Monday night.
In the first game Tuesday at WHS, the Lady 'Cats started off with eight straight points as the Lady Lions of Fairfield were having trouble getting the ball back over the net early on.
FHS (0-2) battled back and made the score 8-5, due in large part to the serving by Makenna Corzett.
Caplinger made the score 9-5 with a towing punch over the net.
Off-setting points were scored by Fairfield's Brenna Simmons and Whiteoak senior Brittany Tolliver to make the score 12-10, WHS, game one.
The Lady Lions came back to come within one point of tying the first game with a serve by senior Erin Clarkston.
But game one was all WHS near the end as they scored the final nine points with some of the points by Tolliver and senior Kari Fannin. In game one, Tolliver had four aces and held the Lady 'Cats have scoring runs of eight and six points.
For the start of game two, WHS jumped out to a 8-3 advantage with Caplinger scoring the eighth point by taking control of the front court, pushing the ball over the net.
Rahe said when his team puts the ball where their opponent isn't, they call it 'looking' for wood. He said they look to tip it where they aren't.
Fairfield cut the WHS lead down to five (10-5) with junior Whitney Hanenkrat making a block, and the score went to 14-11, then FHS cut the Lady 'Cats' lead to one at 14-13 when WHS hit the ball out of play.
Sydney Corzatt (FHS) brought the Lady Lions within three points of WHS by knocking the ball into an open spot on the Whiteoak side of the court.
Late in game two, Tolliver slammed the ball off a Lady Lion player to put WHS up 21-15 and then WHS cruised to the final four points, winning game two, 25-16.
The third set, however, almost went the way of Fairfield, leading early 4-2, but WHS quickly tied the game at four and took a 6-4 advantage with a big-time block by WHS sophomore Christine Hamilton.
But points by Hanenkrat, a FHS captain, along with a tap over the net by Clarkston, another FHS team captain, put the Lady Lions up 10-7.
"Whitney does well for us," FHS coach Mary Beth Hodson said. "But Caplinger's height hurt us. She's a good player."
FHS went up 17-8 with an ace by Clarkston, but points by Caplinger and Tolliver brought WHS back into the third game at 18-15, with Fairfield holding onto a three-point lead.
Fairfield (0-2) got to the game point, only needing one point to seal the game win, taking advantage of the WHS rotation where Caplinger was courtside.
But once the rotation switched, Caplinger returned with a vengeance, scoring two points, and with the help of her teammates, tied the game at 24.
WHS junior Jessie Gilliland put WHS up 25-24, and the final point of the third game and match was from Tolliver.
"We have great kids, really great kids," Rahe said. "We have great seniors, and to come back (Tuesday) after the way we came back (Monday), that is a good thing to see. Brittany (Tolliver) has improved, and all eight of our players are pretty good. We don't have many weaknesses and our team works hard."
Gilliland finished with seven aces.
"We are playing with a young team with one senior, two juniors, and the rest are sophomores," Hodson said. "We are just committing a lot of mistakes and that is due to our age.
"We have good girls, but we need to get our confidence back. When we do that, it will be a different ball game."
On Monday, FHS lost to Southeastern by scores of 25-17, 25-20 and 25-17.
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