STUART - Laiken Burnett was living every setter's dream Tuesday night and her framing of the volleyball led Carroll County to a 3-1 (25-23, 21-25, 25-21, 25-19) victory over host Patrick County.
The victory allows CCHS (7-5, 4-1 District) to maintain a share of the Three Rivers District lead with a match with Radford remaining in the first half of the season.
Burnett finished with a career-high 41 assists and the junior added 18 digs for good measure. Just as impressive as the total is, the way it was divided jumps off the stat sheet.
Senior Aza Petty finished the match with 16 kills, 17 digs and two aces to collect another double–double but it was junior Ali Wright that had the match of her life.
Wright has been nursing a sore knee as of late but she showed no signs of it against the Lady Cougars. The total number of kills was 23 and her team needed everyone of them to fend of PCHS.
”Patrick County is a very scrappy team and they play very well at home,” said Carroll head coach Cindy Edwards. ”We knew that we would have to play well to come in here and get a win.”
The biggest question after the match is what did Wright have for breakfast and can her mother get more of it?
Patrick County is the second team with substantial size that Carroll County has faced in the past four days. Last Saturday the Lady Cavaliers faced a super-sized squad in Gate City but as big as the Blue Devils were, they didn’t hit the ball as hard as PCHS. The ability to dig out the slammed balls played as much of a role in the victory as the kills.
Petty, Burnett and Callie Harris took turns laying out across the floor to keep the ball in play. Harris was unfortunate in that she was in the direct line of the hardest-hit ball of the match but appeared to shake it off and remained in the match.
In the opening set PCHS gave the Lady Cavaliers everything and then some, leading as late as 17-16. Petty and Wright took turns scoring kills until Burnett closed it out (25-23) with a 2-ball kill.
The home team opened the second set with a 6-0 run and managed to keep CCHS at bay the entire way. The match was tied after the 25-21 victory.
For the sixth consecutive match, Carroll County claimed the all-important third set. Brooke Webb added a big block early and then it turned into Burnett and Friends as Petty and Wright just took turns hammering the ball away from the blockers. Webb had the honor of closing out the set at 25-21.
Patrick County did its best to force a winner-take-all-fifth set but CCHS answered every punch. Maddie Hyatt followed two Wright kills with an ace to give the Lady Cavaliers an early lead they refused to give up.
Burnett called Match with a service winner, allowing the ride back to The Hill to be an enjoyable one!
The team has 10 matches remaining in the regular season and will return to action Sept. 30 at Marion.
In the JJV match, Carroll County jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the opener but the Cougars tied it up at 13-13. The score was 19-18 before PCHS scored the final six points.
The Cougars closed out the match with a 25-14 victory in the second set.
Local News
Comments / 0