Published: August 27, 2008 12:19 am            

HS VOLLEYBALL: Floyd Central sweeps past Pioneers

CLARKSVILLE — For the Floyd Central volleyball team, this season is all about the big prize waiting at the end — a return trip to the Class 4A state finals.

Until then, a victory over arch-rival Providence goes a long way to make the wait bearable.

The Pioneers and Highlanders — two of the crown jewels of the local volleyball scene — went toe-to-toe as only they can on Tuesday night, producing exactly the sort of back-and-forth affair expected. In the end, Class 4A Floyd Central lost early leads in all three games before rolling late in a 25-19, 25-22, 25-15 victory over Providence at the Robert I. Larkin Center.

“This is my third year here, and that’s by far the best team I’ve seen Providence have,” said Highlander coach Bart Powell. “If they continue to play like that, they’ll have a chance to play for a state championship at the end.”

While Powell came away impressed with the Pioneers, it was his team that lived up to its credentials early.

Floyd star Katy Schad delivered three fast kills to help her team grab a 6-1 advantage in Game 1. The lead ballooned to 8-2 and stood at 9-3 before Maria Cochran came up to serve for the Pioneers.

The junior quickly served three aces and — with the help of three kills by Lucy Knott — completely sapped Floyd’s confidence. After a series of uncharacteristic errors, the Highlanders watched their seemingly-insurmountable lead turn into a deficit. By the time a shot from Schad went wide, Providence had grabbed a 17-14 edge.

“They have a solid attack and tough defense,” Powell said. “(Providence coach Purichia) Terry had them motivated and ready to play. To win one in here is tough.”

In what would become a pattern throughout, The Pioneers failed to hang on to the late lead, committing four straight errors to fall behind 21-18. Floyd then put together another scoring run and closed things out on a block by Jordan Owens.

Game 2 followed much the same script, with the Highlanders again jumping out 7-2 before Providence evened things up.

With the nerves and adrenaline dying down, the two teams put on a superior display in the middle portion of the second game, with Alexa Elliot putting away a kill after Providence staved off two kill attempts by Floyd’s big guns — Schad and Lindsey Ragland — to make it 14-12. Knott then smacked home a kill after another long rally to put her team on the verge of evening things up with a 21-18 lead.

But Schad, who led both teams with 12 kills, scored on a block and dropped home another point two cap a string of four straight, and then consecutive net violations and a kill by Ashlie Haworth gave Floyd a narrow 25-22 victory.

“It was a great atmosphere to play in tonight,” Purichia said. “The crowd was very large and spirited. I felt like we started with a great deal of nerves, and had a hard time shaking it. The first two games we really shot ourselves in the foot with unforced errors, mainly serving and hitting errors. We don't have the confidence we need in ourselves yet to close these big matches.”

Floyd took most of the suspense out of Game 3, again grabbing an early lead. Providence rallied on back-to-back aces by Der that made it 12-11, but then Schad stepped back to serve and didn’t stop until the Highlanders had run off 10 consecutive points, with five of them coming on Pioneer errors.

“Our season is a journey, a process that takes time,” Purichia said of her squad’s struggle with unforced miscues. “We will continue to work on the little things that will make our team more successful. The belief in ourselves is going to be the key to our success, and that will take us some time to develop.”

Despite Floyd’s state-wide reputation as one of the teams t beat this season, Powell was just happy to escape with a victory.

“Providence has climbed a big hill from the summer and they are going to continue to get better,” Powell said. “But we did some good things, too. For us to be able to beat them in three, we really must have played pretty well.”

Der had nine kills, seven digs and two aces for Providence. Knott added 10 kills, while setter Elizabeth Endris dished out 28 assists. Cochran finished with five aces.

Ragland added eight kills for Floyd Central.

        

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