Holly Pond ends Vinemont's momentum in 3A, Area 11 VB:
Holly Pond completes its area schedule at 7 & 1:
GDW Analysis:
HOLLY POND: Vinemont's volleyball perfection for September got stopped Thursday by Holly Pond in 3A, Area 11 play from Dwayne Adams Court/Felton Easterwood Gymnasium.
Holly Pond fought off a 1 to 0 deficit to claim victory 3 games to 1. The Lady Broncos tallied winning scores of 25 to 22, 25 to 16 and 25 to 19 as covered exclusively by Gameday Weekly.
Adrien Adams' Lady Broncos have finished their area schedule, going 7 & 1. The loss was at Vinemont two weeks ago in five exciting sets.
This week Holly Pond stayed in course to success with a 3 to 0 sweep of Locust Fork Monday and JB Pennington prior to getting revenge on a talented Vinemont group.
Kaydi Woodard's Vinemont squad is 6 & 1 and will finish area play next Thursday at home with Hanceville.
Tiebreaking procedures are very much possible with Vinemont trying to avoid an upset to Hanceville who recently took Holly Pond into 5 games.
Vinemont took 19 minutes to win the first set 25 to 18. A fast start thanks to scoring and attacking by Addison Holcomb, Arleigh Thomason had them up 6 to 1.
After Holly Pond trimmed the lead to 7 to 4, Natalie Foell and Reagan Robinson propelled Vinemont with the lead going to 13 to 7 following an ace by Robinson.
With Holly Pond staying close at 22 to 17, Vinemont ended the opener by a service point from Lizzy Flores, a volley by Holcomb and a kill from Robinson for a 25 to 18 verdict and early momentum.
That changed in the next three games.
From the 2nd set, Holly Pond would go ahead to stay at 19 to 18 when freshman Sadie Nail connected on a serve.
Sophomore Cira Thrift made a block at the net and would get the set winner on serve with the match even at a victory apiece.
Down by a 7 to 3 score early in the 3rd game, Holly Pond got going from the play of senior Blakely Baggett. Baggett tallied four straight on serve with an ace to give her group an 11 to 8 edge.
Baggett delivered a kill from a serve by Sofia Hays. The set ended with a front row block from Ava Olinger.
Now Holly Pond was gathering the momentum it needed and did everything in its quest to take the match from Vinemont in four games.
Vinemont went to work and rallied from being down 10 to 5 to tie the score at 16 to 16 after Holly Pond served the ball out of play.
Nail crushed the ball over up front with a kill and it was the Lady Broncos to take the lead from there.
Baggett factored in with four of the final five points for her team. Her kill ended the match at 5:18 p.m. The match was played in 1 hour 23 minutes.
Baggett has meant a lot to the team this week, especially playing at home. The senior was recognized on September 15 along with Ava Thomas and Morgan Bartlett.
She was ready to make amends for the loss Holly Pond experienced two weeks prior with the Lady Broncos winning their 8th in a row and going to 20 & 6 for the season.
The youth status of Nail the freshman, the Olinger sisters, Thrift and Isabella Foust as sophomores has been seen in the last two weeks by GDW with the opportunity to add to their success that has given them a winning percentage of .769 following the triumph of Vinemont.
This was a tri match assignment as Vinemont recovered and swept Falkville in 2 games.
The Lady Eagles have 21 victories against 6 losses. Thursday was the first time the Lady Eagles had been defeated this month.
Photo of Vinemont VB coach Kaydi Woodard (left) and Holly Pond coach Adrien Adams prior to their 3A, Area 11 showdown Thursday from Dwayne Adams' Court/Felton Easterwood Gymnasium.
GDW photo by Johnny Thornton.
