News TriCounty News Errors plague Mantas in win

Errors plague Mantas in win

Wednesday, 09 September 2009 00:00 Written by DAWN KLEMISH
ENGLEWOOD: Lemon Bay has all the tools to be a strong volleyball presence this season. And yet, just two matches into the season, the Manta Rays faltered with one of the most elemental principles of the game.

The serve.

Lemon Bay handed visiting South Fort Myers 15 free points on Wednesday night due to service errors, and another some 20-odd points on miscues, but still managed to best the Wolfpack 3-1 (25-9, 26-24, 14-25, 25-20).

"A win is a win, but we can't play like that and expect to win," Mantas coach Dave Rohrer said. "Serving is one of our strengths this season, and to put 15 (balls) into the net is just awful."

Fifteen minutes into the match and Lemon Bay (2-0) had already taken game one handily, but the nine Wolfpack points set a trend for how the night was to unfold. Just two of South Fort Myers' points came from its own attack; five were freebies from the Mantas' poor serving.

The Wolfpack (0-2) were more than an hour late to the 7 p.m. match due to transportation problems, but once they shook off the first-game funk, they fought the Mantas tooth and nail the rest of the way. Time and again Lemon Bay built a big lead only to relinquish it with its own mistakes.

The Mantas took game two by just two points and led 22-11 in the fourth game, and the Wolfpack rattled off seven straight to pull to within 22-18 before Lemon Bay put the match away.

"We gave (South Fort Myers) game three with too many mistakes," said Rohrer, of a game in which his team went down 5-4 and never recovered. "We didn't serve well, we didn't receive well and because of that, there weren't a lot of sets to attack."

Junior Amanda Harkeli was one of Lemon Bay's saving graces, putting down a match-high 12 kills and racking up 12 service points (three aces) during what Rohrer called, "the best game of her life." Also strong for the Mantas were junior Annie Swinford (nine kills, 12 service points) and sophomore Amber Vines, who quarterbacked from the setter's spot and had several crucial digs to boot.

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