News TriCounty News North Port shocks Lemon Bay

North Port shocks Lemon Bay

Wednesday, 16 September 2009 05:30 Written by CHUCK BALLARO
The North Port girls volleyball team had a lot of soul searching to do this week heading into their match Monday night against powerhouse Lemon Bay.

And after a lopsided loss in their first game against the Mantas, it looked as if they hadn’t really stopped thinking about it.

But North Port soon became the benefactors of an incredible series of fortuitous events that allowed them to stun the mighty Mantas 10-25, 25-19, 25-9, 25-18.

Suddenly, the serves were falling where Lemon Bay players weren’t. Balls that hit the net were falling in their direction. Players turned impossible digs into even more impossible points, leaving the Mantas stunned.

Of course, the Bobcats (2-2) worked for most of what they earned, and that’s was why the breaks finally started going their way.

“It was a lot of work this week,” coach Becky Halbert said. “We worked on being aggressive and going for points.”

First, they had to get over a one-sided loss in the first game where, after taking an early 6-3 lead, Lemon Bay outscored them 22-4 the rest of the way.

“There were nerves in that first game,” Halbert said. “Once we relaxed and played how we can play we were fantastic.”

The second game was a see-saw affair until senior setter Brittney Burnett ran off five straight service points to give North Port the lead and momentum they would never relinquish as Lemon Bay fell over each other trying to defend the Lady Bobcats’ serves which produced 18 aces, seven from Burnett.

“They picked up their game and started serving to the weak passer and took advantage of it,” Lemon Bay head coach Dave Rohrer said.

Game three was all North Port. Burnett served the first six points of the game as they had leads of 6-0, 11-1, 14-2, 17-3, and 21-4 before Lemon Bay could win a point on serve in a 25-9 rout.

It was pretty much the same in the fourth game, with Burnett serving the first four points. North Port would take a 23-13 lead before Lemon Bay made one final stand. Junior hitter Annie Winford served Lemon Bay back into the match with five points before North Port held on.

Senior hitter Brooke Dremann served six aces and had five kills for North Port. Junior hitter Kaitlyn Jaeger had nine kills and eight digs, while Adrienne Moreno recorded four blocks.

The Mantas were led by junior Zaire Davidson with four aces and four kills. Sophomore Amber Vines tallied 22 assists, while middle blocker Nina Bagley had four kills and nine blocks.

The resurgent victory couldn’t have been sweeter for a team a week removed from a one-sided beating at the hands of Charlotte.

“I thought we did a good job coming back after a bad first game,” Burnett said. “We just kept our heads up.”

“We have accurate servers and we picked on spots,” Halbert said. “We served the same areas over and over and got a lot of points.”