CCHS Junior outside blocker Zykeria Allen goes up for the kill in effort to defeat Gainesville.
By FEAR CHURCHWELL – Web Writer
The Gladiators were defeated by Oconee, but rebounded to defeat Gainesville in region game.
On Sept. 17, the Clarke Central High School varsity volleyball team fell to Oconee High School but rebounded by defeating regional opponent Gainesville High School.
The first game in the match started with strong Gladiator offense to take an early lead of 10-4. OCHS would rally to eventually take the lead with a score of 13-12. That rally marked the point in the loss of energy on the CCHS side.
“(OCHS) has a consistent offense, and we had a lot of unforced errors,” CCHS senior middle blocker Gansiry Thioub said. “When we needed the energy the most we didn’t have it.”
For the rest of that game, CCHS was played catch-up against OCHS. The Gladiators were at one point down 21-17 and would then go on 6-3 run making the score 24-23 in favor of OCHS.
Although the comeback of the Gladiator’s was strong, the Warriors prevailed on the ensuing serve to win the game 25-23.
Early in the next game, the Gladiator serves were rough and two of them hit the net giving OCHS two east points. The Gladiators would keep the attack and score six points straight to make it 7-2 early in the second game.
Throughout the game the Gladiator serving would accumulated more turnovers, and eventually cost them the game.
For the remainder of the second game, the score would go back and forth and eventually even out at 19-19. In conclusion, OCHS would run away with it to win 25-21.
CCHS Junior outside hitter Zykeria Allen had a key performance this game, Allen had seven kills against OCHS.
“(Zykeria) played a really good net game,” CCHS head volleyball coach Ashlee Wegmann said. “She covered very well for the middle block. She was there when she needed to be.”
Despite the loss to OCHS, the loss would not factor into the regional record of CCHS because OCHS is not a regional opponent.
Later that evening, CCHS would face their regional opponent Gainesville High School. GHS was undefeated in regional play with six wins and no losses.
CCHS Senior Laura Covington going up for the ball against Gainesville High School.
Going into the match against GHS, CCHS was 5-1 in regional play and trailed both Gainesville High School (6-0) and Apalachee (6-0) in regional play by one game.
“We talked a lot in the locker room about playing in our heads,” Wegmann said. “That seemed to help we saw a little spark (in the team).”
The first game, once again, started with a strong Gladiator start. The Gladiators had some key spikes to earn valuable points as well as early GHS errors such as hitting it over the base line multiple times.
Later in the first game, GHS would settle down this gave CCHS enough time to rack up a 18-6 lead. Following the 18-6 lead, CCHS would allow 11 more GHS points, but had no trouble in scoring the 25 points needed to win the game 25-17.
The climax of the second game came after a CCHS timeout, CCHS was down 8-11, but would soon turn the game around. Putting together a series of hard spikes, the GHS defense began to wear down and allowed many careless points.
Since the 8-11 deficit, CCHS would go on an almost unheard of 17-5 run to win the game 25-16.
Despite the non-region loss OCHS to OCHS, CCHS propelled ahead of GHS in the region standings. With six wins and one loss, CCHS is a top contender in the 8-AAAAA region.
