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Volleyball: Anderson, Allmon onslaught paces Lady Jags past East
By Matt Welch, mwelch@acnpapers.com
FLOWER MOUND -- The final three District 8-5A volleyball playoff seeds are still up for grabs and Flower Mound came one step closer to securing one of them Tuesday.
Plano East, on the other hand, now faces a win-out scenario if its postseason hopes are to remain intact after dropping a 3-1 decision to the Lady Jaguars (17-25, 25-21, 27-25, 25-19).
"It feels good and I'm glad the girls are playing with a lot of confidence," said Marci Brinkman, Flower Mound coach. "They're playing together and as a team. The first game was a bit iffy, but we knew coming in that this was going to be a battle."
East senior Nkiru Udenze and junior Kayla Burling found openings in the Lady Jag defense for three unanswered kills to take the lead during the night's most offense-centric set with both teams combining for 33 kills. But true of form, the steady arm of Flower Mound junior Jordan Anderson was the Flower Mound counterpunch, which dealt its share of damage throughout the night, including eight kills in the third set.
"[Anderson and Burling] were swinging away," said Steven Jones, East coach. "When we pick up the ball, we can get a good set and definitely put the ball down. But we knew coming in that Jordan was a good hitter and we still had difficulty blocking her."
Anderson totaled a match-high 27 kills, but it was a strike from setter Larissa Armstrong that deflated a trio of rally-saving East digs to regain the lead at 24-23. A pair of Lady Panther errors gave Flower Mound the victory and the 2-1 cushion in the match.
"We work off momentum and we've been working on communication," Brinkman said. "When a team gives us some points, we're going to take that and make some rallies happen off that too.
"They know to take advantage of those things."
The momentum carried over into the fourth set.
Anderson fired away for five kills in the final frame, complemented amiably by fellow outside hitter Briana Allmon, who piled on six of her 15 kills in the fourth stanza.
"Briana and Jordan are great on the outside for us," Brinkman said. "It's always a great effort because our middles and right sides put the ball away when they go get inside and it opens the outside stuff for them."
Despite five Udenze kills, East never led during the final set; drawing just one tie at 6-6 before ultimately succumbing to a block assist by Megan Mont and Elizabeth Boyd to seal the Flower Mound victory.
It was a change of pace after the Lady Jaguars struggled in an opening set controlled by East.
Bludgeoning the Flower Mound defense for 13 kills, Udenze and Burling combined for 11 as the Lady Panthers capitalized on miscommunications galore on the opposing end of the net. Burling's seven opening-set kills marked the lion's share of her 17 total kills, while Udenze chipped in 16 and senior Tori Wood added six.
"We showed the effort for how bad we wanted this game," Jones said. "When you get into a good match against an opponent like this, we're both going to compete. We knew one game wouldn't do it and that we still had to fight hard afterwards."
The Lady Jaguars still looked to be finding their way early into the second set as a Wood ace and Flower Mound attack error paced an 8-4 East start. The momentum swayed behind a 5-0 run capped by Anderson and a 5-1 run featuring an ace by junior Erin Layne for a 15-11 lead that ballooned to as large as 22-15.
Overcoming the slow start, Flower Mound improved to 8-4 in district; good for a second-place tie with Flower Mound Marcus with a 7 p.m. road tilt Friday against Plano West looming.
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