The Columbus North volleyball team came out with a lot of intensity and energy in its Tuesday night contest against New Albany.
Unfortunately for North, as the match wore on, that energy and intensity faded away, and New Albany took advantage to hand North a 10-25, 25-14, 25-18, 25-17 loss.
“I knew that New Albany was going to come back. They’re a very energetic team, and they are very scrappy. They’re a very good and competitive team, and I knew they weren’t going to die down, and if our girls didn’t stay above that, then it was going to be a battle,” North coach Quin Shoultz said. “We definitely saw that in Sets 2, 3 and 4.”
North (6-13) came out strong, jumping out to a 5-0 lead before New Albany could respond. Later in the set when New Albany cut it to 8-5, the serving of Sydney Cooper help kickstart the North offense to score seven straight points for a 15-8 lead. New Albany didn’t pose much of a threat for the rest of the set, and with quality serving from Sarah Bennett, North grew the lead from 17-9 to 23-9 and closed out the set.
North might have wished that first set never ended because it lost all the energy and intensity in the second set. It allowed New Albany to jump out to a 5-1 lead. North cut it to 5-4, but New Albany came back on the attack to find the open space that North gave to move ahead 15-5. The closest North came was when it was 20-14, but then New Albany scored five straight points to capture the set and tie the match at 1-1.
Things didn’t get any easier for North in the third set. New Albany got off to a 4-1 lead, but North did come back with four straight points, capped off with a Madi Roop service ace to lead 5-4. That would be the only time North had the lead in the set. New Albany rallied to score eight of the next 10 points to lead 12-7. North cut the deficit to 14-12 later on in the set, but New Albany picked up five straight points to lead 19-12 to close out the set and lead the match 2-1.
New Albany jumped out to a 6-2 lead in the fourth set, and later extended the lead to 15-8 to eventually close out the match.
Roop recorded 14 kills and 22 digs, and Bennett had four blocks and five aces to lead North. Reagan Kane notched 29 assists.
Also for North, Bennett pounded nine kills, and Logan Branstetter added eight kills, and Roop served one ace. Cooper tallied 15 digs, Grace Chapman had 13 digs, Kane posted 12 digs and Elizabeth Rayburn contributed 10 digs.
