Enhancing Knights use robust serving to comb Grafton

KINGWOOD – After a little bit of an uneven begin to the season, the Preston volleyball staff has began to make some apparent progress underneath first-year head coach Jill Huggins, with a heavy help from power and conditioning coach Calvin Moore, and on Wednesday, the Knights had an opportunity to climb as much as .500 within the Massive 10 Convention once they hosted Grafton. 

Maybe it’s a recent begin, or an improved health stage, or some stable staff chemistry, however no matter it’s, the Knights introduced a profitable mixture of confidence and communication as they swept the Bearcats 3-0 (25-10, 25-18, 25-15). 

The 2 groups began set one pretty even till, holding a slender 11-10 lead, PHS junior Cameryn Sypolt stepped to the service line. With sharp precision, Sypolt proceeded to seek out the holes and exploit weaknesses within the Grafton (0-4, 0-3 within the Massive 10) service return alignment to drive service winners or scrambling offensive units because the PHS factors mounted. Even two separate GHS timeouts couldn’t stem the momentum, because the Knights rattled off 14 straight factors to shut out the primary set. 

Set two adopted an analogous script, because the Bearcats hung with Preston (3-5, 3-3) till the halfway level of the set. At 11-11, PHS once more burst out to a commanding 20-13 lead, however this time, behind some robust middle-hitting and blocking from Kenna Keener, Grafton battled again to get to 22-18. Nevertheless, the Knights ran their offense effectively for 3 straight factors to take Set 2. 

Within the last set, after a fast Bearcats begin, the Knights once more maintained the next stage of play within the center part and had constructed an 18-13 lead when Sypolt once more took management. Six straight wonderful serves, six straight PHS factors, and regardless that she served lengthy on match level, the Knight took care of their enterprise shortly thereafter, 25-15. 

“Coach Huggins at all times preaches that serving is all about confidence and focus,” Sypolt smiled after the win, “and I used to be hitting my spots fairly effectively tonight. We performed them twice earlier than this yr, so we knew the place we wished to serve, and all of our servers had been on tonight. We labored effectively as a staff (Thursday) and communicated fairly effectively for probably the most half. It was a superb win.” 

Huggins agreed. 

“I favored the way in which we stayed within the second, and completed off every set with vitality and depth,” she defined. “We at all times want to enhance our passing and consistency – that’s by no means ok for any staff, and is at all times one thing to work on – however I particularly favored that we hit increasingly more because the night time went on.  

“Giving up free balls since you don’t need to make errors isn’t what we wish,” she continued. “Hit, hit, hit, even for those who go lengthy or brief or get blocked. It’s one of the best ways to enhance, and we’re exhibiting progress each, observe sport, and I favored what I noticed tonight.”  

Within the JV match, the Bearcats swept PHS 2-0 (25-15, 25-16).  

The Knights host an important Convention tri-match with Elkins and North Marion tonight, set to begin at 6:00 p.m. 

BY MARK SCHRAF