Grace Brandt, left, and Jordyn Hoffman, of North Union, attempt to block a shot from a Graham hitter during Central Buckeye Conference volleyball action. The Lady Cats swept the Lady Falcons 3-0 to win the match.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Sam Dillon)
The Lady Cats of North Union picked up a Central Buckeye Conference volleyball win over Graham on Tuesday.
NU swept the Lady Falcons 3-0 to up its CBC record to 2-1.
North Union head coach Peg Curts was excited with the way her team played.
“What an awesome win that was,” she said.
The victory comes on the back of a tough loss to the Benjamin Logan on Saturday, when the Cats played “flat,” according to their coach.
“I am an extremely proud of the way we played (Tuesday),” Curts said. “We worked really hard in practice on Monday in order to bounce back from that defeat against Ben Logan.
“We worked really hard on our communication and moving quicker on the floor. That was very evident tonight.”
The Lady Cats picked up their points early in set one.
They pulled away from the Falcons to a 10-5 mark with the help of Journey Blevins on the serve line.
North Union kept the floor clean during its serve receive, while setting up some solid plays on the attack.
Curts said the hits came from all over the floor tonight as she let her setters call the shots.
“We put our sets in different positions tonight,” she said. “I had multiple hitters tonight come up with kills.
“We had other people get the opportunity to show that they can hit the ball.”
Outside hitters Gabby Ziegler and Sydney Bacon combined for 10 kills, while Jordyn Hoffman, who usually sets for the Lady Cats, added six.
NU held off a late push by the Falcons to take set one 25-17.
The ensuing game started with Grace Brandt at the service line. She picked up seven points out of the gate and gave NU a comfortable lead.
Curts said it was the kind of start she has been looking for from her team from the beginning of the season.
“That is something we have been trying to strive for, coming out of the gate strong,” she said. “At the beginning of the season we would get down four or five and then were constantly trying to dig ourselves out of a hole.”
The Lady Cats continued their offensive push with several solid blocks from Brandt.
Her front line work sparked NU to a commanding 20-7 lead.
Curts said solid play from her back line kept the ball alive and helped set up some heavy kills from her hitters.
“That second set was phenomenal,” she said. “I am just so proud of Emma Lindsay, as her saves were phenomenal.
“All of the girls were moving really well tonight,” said curts. “We didn’t let balls drop and were scrappy about it.”
The scrappy play helped the Cats pick up a 25-13 set two win.
The Lady Falcons kept the third game close with high energy.
However, heavy hitting from Blevins kept the Falcons on their heels.
Blevins picked up 13 kills during the sweep.
“Journey (Blevins) is my biggest killer and there are not a lot of people who are going to stop her when she makes up her mind that she is going to put it (the ball) down,” Curts said.
The solid offense and scrappy play on the back line were all the Lady Cats needed to take a 25-18 set three in to complete the sweep.
The Lady Cas increased their record to 6-2 on the season and will return to action Thursday as they host CBC opponent Indian Lake.