By Chuck Reherman
Sports Editor
Playing a team for a third time in a season is always a concern for a coach.
Southwest Covenant’s Samantha Lindsey had that concern going in. But, it was put to rest by early in the second set.
The Lady Patriots rolled to a three-set win over Amber-Pocasset Tuesday night on SWCS’ home floor.
SWCS had beaten Am-Po in match two weeks earlier and had also beaten the Lady Panthers in a tournament.
The third meeting was a little closer than the first two. All three sets finished with a 25-17 score.
Lindsey did play her subs and junior varsity players in most of the third set.
“We took care of business, which is really hard when you are subbing people in,” Lindsey said. “I was proud of them that we showed the maturity of the team. We started the third set down 10-4, but we ended up recovering nicely and didn’t have to sub a lot of our starters back in.
“As a whole that is showing growth,” she said. “We were able to stabilize the situation and I was impressed with our JV players, they stepped up and did a really nice job. I was able to play Kylie (Moseley) all around for a third set and also Alex (Davis). They are going to be big time players in the future. Right now, they are dominantly on the front row, but with time they can be big time on the back row.”
The Lady Patriots at one point looked like they may have to go to a fourth set. Lindsey had subbed the majority of her starters and Amber-Pocasset jumped out to a quick 9-2 lead. Am-Po led 10-3 before the Lady Patriots behind Moseley and Davis made the comeback.
SWCS went on a 5-2 run to close the lead to 12-8 and tied the set at 16-16. The Lady Patriots used a pair of kills to take the lead 18-16 and poured it on from there, winning seven of the final eight points.
In the first two sets, the Lady Patriots had taken the early lead, but couldn’t put Amber-Pocasset away until late in the sets. The Lady Patriots did open a 19-10 lead and a Macie Noland kill ended the second set 25-17.
“It is always hard to play a team three times in a season,” Lindsey said. “But, we did get focused when we needed to and got the win.
“We have to play a couple of teams in the Bethany tournament (Saturday) that we have already played as well,” she said. “It should be a turning point for us. We are in a very competitive pool and I hope that is where we start peaking.”
The Lady Patriots swept a match from Union City earlier, winning the three sets 25-23, 25-16 and 25-21.
It was a tougher match than the Lady Patriots had expected.
“We looked better tonight than the other night and we are making our adjustments,” Lindsey said. “In that third set when we were down 18-13, that we need to be each others advocate and celebrate a point. We needed to stop the bleeding and score points and we did.
“Macie stepped up and her service game gave us the edge in that third set,” she said. “We are not where we are wanting to be, but we are getting there.”
SWCS trailed most of the third set and rallied from 18-13 down to 19-18 ahead before putting the set away.
