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No Lovejoy lost: Lady Leopards win cross-town showdown
BY Kevin Hageland, khageland@acnpapers.com
Allen versus Lovejoy has become an annual occurrence on the volleyball court the past three seasons, but Tuesday night was the first time the visiting team was victorious.
That was good news for the Lady Leopards' fans who made the four-mile trip to Allen and saw their team best the Lady Eagles, 25-21, 25-23, 20-25, 25-16.
"We had a great fan base here tonight and I think it shows the community is really behind this team," said Ryan Mitchell, Lovejoy head coach. "And then to get a win against a cross-town rival at their place, we'll take it. This is a hard place to play and a hard place to win at."
"I thought we controlled Game 2," said Kelley Gregoriew, Allen head coach. "But we couldn't finish it out."
The numbers back up Gregoriew's assertion as Allen led for much of Game 2, save for brief Lovejoy leads on the strength of a lengthy service game from junior Brooke Ray and a string of three consecutive kills from junior Ebony Nwanebu. But the Lady Eagles responded, and evened the game, 23-23, following a kill from senior Ashley Hooper.
Allen appeared primed to even the match, but an errant hit and connection error gave the next two points, a 25-23 win and 2-0 lead to the Lady Leopards.
"We made some critical mistakes," Gregoriew said, "and had some errors that weren't exactly forced."
Lovejoy parlayed that win into a strong start in Game 3 as the team appeared much crisper in winning nine of the first 10 points. A kill from Allen senior Steffi Loe broke that run, but the Lady Eagles still trailed, 9-2.
"We came out flat in Game 3," Gregoriew said. "But this is volleyball and that crazy thing called momentum kicked in and we were able to get back in it."
Senior Tori Bates and Loe pushed the attack as Allen moved to within 15-10. The Lady Leopards attempted to regain control with senior Andie Malloy registering a kill, block and tip over a span of four points, but the Lady Eagles got to 19-19 after an ace from sophomore Camryn Freiberg. That ace was part of a 6-0 run punctuated with back-to-back kills from Loe.
"Steffi struggled at first tonight," Gregoriew said, "but then she really came on."
Hooper picked up a kill and block on the penultimate point of the set and junior Kelly Holden finished the game off, 25-20, with a kill.
"We failed to close out Game 3," Mitchell said. "I think we got complacent with our offense; we kept feeding the ball to the outside and did nothing in the middle."
That changed in Game 4.
Lovejoy continued to get the ball to Nwanebu on the edge, but also mixed in Malloy, senior Nicole Newton and junior Mallorie Puckett on the attack. The result of that change, as well as an improved serve that caused Allen receiving problems, was an early lead the Lady Leopards wouldn't relinquish.
An ace from Nwanebu forced an Allen timeout with the Lady Eagles trailing, 15-9. The home team wouldn't get any closer from there though as connection problems cropped up and the deficit soon became 23-12. Allen won four of the next five points, but Nwanebu sealed the set, 25-16, with a thunderous kill that gave Lovejoy the four-set victory.
The win also gave the Lady Leopards a 2-1 series advantage over the Lady Eagles.
But that wasn't enough to please Mitchell.
"The past couple of weeks we haven't executed to the level I think we are capable of," he said, "and tonight was another example of that."
Lovejoy continues play at 6:30 p.m. Friday when it hosts Ursuline.
"We've got two days to try and fix this before we play Ursuline," Mitchell said. "The girls understand we aren't playing our best and we need to all get together and figure it out because I know we are capable. We've stayed the course and gone 3-0 (also beating Richardson Pearce and Sachse) without playing our best, so that should show the girls what we're capable of and that we can go to another level."
Allen will look to go to another level Friday night as well as the Lady Eagles open the District 8-5A season at 7 p.m. on the road against Plano.
"I think this was a good match for us," Gregoriew said. "Of course we would have preferred to win, but the girls have shown a lot more in the past week and I think this team is ready and excited for district."
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