Spanish Springs wins match point in third set, goes on to outlast rival in five
You could feel it coming.
After erasing separate 17-13 and 20-14 deficits to take the first two sets in Thursday’s High Desert League opener, Reed was going to pull off yet another comeback and complete a home sweep of Spanish Springs.
The Cougars saw their 20-17 advantage morph into a 22-20 hole, but chose not to let the trend continue. They won the final three points of the set, including one with the match on the line, and went on to come all the way back, spoiling the Raiders’ home opener 21-25, 22-25, 26-24, 25-19, 15-13.
“Winning that third set was huge, because it was the same kind of set up (as the first two sets),” Spanish Springs coach Alix Cirac said. “And then we found a way to finally just relax and play and get some fluidity in what we were doing. The kids put it together. It was really inspiring to watch and kind of exciting to see.”
The Cougars improved to 2-0, 2-0 with the marathon victory. The Raiders dropped to 0-2, 0-2.
Reed led 12-9 in the decisive fifth set only for the Cougars to close the night on a 6-1 run, concluding with a Kirstin Bennett dump set, just her third kill of the night to go along with 44 assists and 11 digs.
“We have a lot more work than I thought, to do. We’re not ready,” said Reed coach Amy Morris, who will be the Maid of Honor at Cirac’s wedding in November. “The reason we had big (deficits) is because we let teams rattle off too many points in a row and we can’t get out of certain rotations.”
Reed remained winless despite a dominating effort from outside hitter junior Alexis Lusby. Often the best player on the floor, Lusby put down a game-high 24 kills. Skyler Tremaine passed out a match-high 50 assists and Taylor Zirkle got up 32 digs.
Jordyn Boswell led Spanish Springs with 15 kills, to go along with 19 digs. Kate Townsend finished with 26 digs. Gracie Fuller and Kelsie Dreelan each chipped in eight kills.
Dreeland had two of the bigger kills of the night for the Cougars. She hit one off a Reed block to put the guests up 25-24 in the third set and her last of the match pushed Spanish Springs in front 13-12 in the fifth set.
Both teams now shift attention to their first non-league games of the season in the 40-team High Sierra Volleyball Invitational this weekend.
Reed will play three California schools Friday at Damonte Ranch: Harbor at 2 p.m., Golden Valley at 4 p.m., and Elk Grove at 6 p.m.
Spanish Springs will open Friday at Bishop Manogue with Sacramento-area power St. Francis at 1 p.m. then follow up with West at 4 p.m. and Madera at 5 p.m.
Bracket play later Friday night and Saturday morning will follow.
Lara Dreelan says
Thank you for the write up! Please take the D off of Kelsie Dreelan’s last name ?