Manchester’s Kameyl Carter makes an acrobatic return during the Lady Hounds’ match with Portsmouth on August 24. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
It was a home non-conference match up on August 24 for Coach Crystal Roberts and her Manchester Lady Greyhounds varsity volleyball squad as they played host to the Portsmouth Lady Trojans.The Lady Hounds had dropped their season opener to Fayetteville in conference play and were looking for win number one on the year.
That would have to wait, however, as the Lady Trojans used their size and strength at the net to take down the home team in four sets, 25-13, 25-18, 24-26m 25-15.
In the night’s first set, the Lady Trojans grabbed an early lead and never gave it up. With senior Kennedy Bowling commanding the territory around the net, Portsmouth raced to a 18-8 advantage. The Lady Hounds cut the deficit t0 eight on two separate occasions on serves by Maggie Roberts and Kameyl Carter but could get no closer as the visitors took the first set easily 25-13.
Again in the second set the Lady Trojans jumped to an early 6-2 lead, this time behind the serving prowess of senior Curbee Morris, This time the Lady Hounds managed to stay within striking distance and on the power of five service points from Harley Rideout and four consecutive blocks from Carter, the home team sliced the margin down to 15-13.
Portsmouth got some breathing room with the next three points and a later Carter kill brought Manchester to within 19-15, but the Lady Trojans held strong and took six of the next nine points to capture the second set 25-18 and take a 2-0 lead
in the match.
With their backs against the wall, the Lady Hounds put together their best effort of the evening in the third set. A pair of Emilee Applegate kills helped put the home team up 3-0 and seven of the next 10 points left the home team on top 10-6.
After Portsmouth cut the lead to 11-9, the Lady Hounds reeled off five straight, again with Rideout at the service line, to go up 16-9. Manchester maintained the lead at 23-15 after a pair of service points from Madison Dunn, but then things got a little tense as the Lady Trojans battled back behind the serves of junior Olivia Dickerson to pull within 23-19 and after getting back the side out after one Manchester points, Portsmouth scored five straight to tie the set at 24 and put themselves two points from boarding the bus home with a straight set win. But the Lady Hounds had other ideas and took those final two points, the finale coming on another Carter block that kept the home team alive as they took the third set 26-24.
That third set loss only derailed the Lady Trojans temporarily. As they had in the opening, they grabbed an early lead in the fourth and what turned out to be the final set. The Lady Hounds made it interesting, pulling within 7-6 and later evened the set at 9 apiece on yet another Carter block. The Lady Hounds took the lead on a Roberts serve but Portsmouth bounced back with a string of 10 of the next 11 points to flip the scoreboard to a 20-12 advantage for the guests.
That was all the momentum the Lady Trojans needed as they scored five of the set’s final eight points for a 25-15 win and they took the match 3 sets to one,
The Portsmouth loss dropped Manchester to 0-2 on the season and a loss later in the week to Whiteoak made that 0-3 but the Lady Hounds picked up their first win of the season on Monday night as they bested Georgetown in straight sets, 25-21, 25-17, 25-15.
Coach Roberts and her squad remained in non-conference play on Wednesday, August 31 with a trip to Franklin Furnace Green.
