Wednesday, Aug. 25, 2010

Pirates fall to Princeton

Regardless of the outcome, when Corinth Holders hosted Princeton for the Pirates' first varsity volleyball competition Thursday night, history was going to be made. For the young purple-and-gold-clad Pirates, it at first appeared that the opening chapter written in the Corinth Holders varsity volleyball book would be a triumphant one.

Running on adrenaline and raw talent, the Pirates found themselves up 22-11 in the first game before a more experienced Princeton squad mounted a furious comeback that didn't end until the Bulldogs had registered a 26-24, 25-7, 25-11 sweep over their upstart opponents.

Princeton's Linda Smith helped pave the way for the comeback during her service in the first game as her low line-drive serves gave the Corinth Holders back line problems to the tune of 12 consecutive points for the Bulldogs.

"Linda Smith did an awesome job coming up and serving 12 in a row," said Princeton coach Trudi Rast. "That was a big thing. First game, we had a lot of serves in the net, and she really pulled through as well as the rest of the team when she was on her serving streak."

The Pirates did their best to recover as Cyarra Pierson's kill shot late in the first game tied it up at 24 apiece. However, a service error and then an inability to return service spotted the Bulldogs the game's final two points.

"I think we lost a little bit of confidence when they got three or four in a row," Corinth Holders coach Charles Riley said. "I think we started off so hot and were so intense that our adrenaline level was flying so high that we came crashing down in that first game."

Princeton (3-0), who returns five players from last year's team that advanced to the third round in the state 1-A playoffs, wore down Corinth Holders in the final two games. The Pirates were scrambling to come up with balls that they were easily in position of in the earlier moments of the match, resulting in numerous unforced errors.

To complicate matters further for Corinth Holders, Princeton's Savanna Massengill gave the Pirates fits at the net.

Massengill recorded five kill shots and stymied many of Corinth Holders' attacks at the net. Smith finished with 25 assists, while Kaitlyn Peedin had 20 digs.

For Riley's young squad that sports eight sophomores and four freshmen, some questions were answered as new ones arose for a program just getting started.

"The exciting thing of starting a program is that it's yours from the very beginning," said Riley. "I think our skills are there, but mentally, how are we going to handle a little bit of adversity? Now we've got to work on that conditioning."