On Tuesday, September 27th South Salem and North Salem battled it out on South Salem’s home court during the varsity volleyball game. South Salem walked away with the win. They took the match in 3-1 sets. Throughout the game, the most dominant player for the Saxons was #5 Brooksie Isham. During the game, her teammates set her up for many scoring opportunities, and each time she delivered. She was always helping the team score, whether that be from her multitude of spikes and aces to her leadership out on the court. When asked how the Saxons played on Tuesday, Isham stated,
“Not very good, we are coming into practice next week to fix our mistakes, and get ready to play Sprague.”
To open up the 1st set, the Saxons started their lead early getting out to a 2-0 lead. During the 1st set, there was a reffing issue caused by the noise coming from South’s student section. They made various animal noises, including cow, goat, cat, and dog noises. After this mishap, the game resumed and South got back on track to take the 1st set. Throughout the majority of the 1st set, it was a close contest, but South never relinquished the lead. The Saxons took the 1st set, the score being 25-22.
In the 2nd set, the Saxons started their lead out early. Just like the first set, they got out with a 2-0 lead. This set was almost identical to the 1st, seeing South hold the lead, but never by much. #13 Kayleigh Carpenter was the star player of the set, serving multiple aces and consistently hitting the ball back over the net to help build South’s lead. South easily took the set, winning it 25-17.
At the beginning of the 3rd set the Saxons they started of with a 6-0 lead. Throughout the majority of this set, it looked as though South would be fully able to take the game in just 3 sets. This would have been the case if North’s defense didn’t completely lock down the net and stopped the Saxons from scoring. The Vikings went on an enormous scoring streak, eventually catching up to South and tying the set 22-22. It was #9 Malena Mathis who could finally stop the Viking’s scoring streak with a block, giving South back the lead. This didn’t last long though because as South’s defense weakened, North’s offense reached its peak. This led to North grabbing the set win, winning 25-23.
After just barely losing the 3rd set South came into the last set with a 7-0 lead, determined to not lose another set to the Vikings. Isham was firing on all cylinders this set, hitting a spike that silenced all of North’s student section. She and the rest of the Saxons proved their dominance over North by winning the set 25-10 and consequently winning the game. Kayleigh Carpenter closed the game for the Saxons, hitting the last shot of the game and bringing joy to her team. When asked how the team played that night, #12 Briella Mathis stated,
“I think that we had some mental struggles, it was kinda hard for us to get in a groove at first, it was hard to get in a system and play how we normally play. I think that in the end there we pulled it out, and we got the win. I think that there is some stuff we need to work on in practice to make that a more successful win, but overall a win is a win.”
