Hometown Volleyball Match Recap: BLACKHAWK COUGARS 3 – Hopewell Vikings 2

By: Bruce Markey
Tuesday, September 24, 2013 | 11:59 PM

The Blackhawk Cougars rallied from a 0-2 deficit to defeat the 2nd ranked Hopewell Vikings Tuesday night in Chippewa 21-25, 18-25, 26-24, 25-18 and 15-9. With the victory, the Cougars move into a tie for first place with Hopewell for the top spot in Section 1 AA at 5-1.

The Vikings led 22-17 in the third game, when Blackhawk coach Cindy Guthrie called a timeout. She said that she told the girls to just get the score to 22-20 and see where it goes from there. Blackhawk scored three straight points to make it 23-20 and Hopewell coach Terry Borkovic called timeout.

The Cougars were able to tie the game at 23 and then won it with senior Haley Schramm making the big play to give Blackhawk the win.

Blackhawk jumped out to an early 14-9 lead in the opening game. But Hopewell rallied to take the lead and pulled away taking the last four points for the victory. The Cougars committed several serving errors in the opening game that gave the Vikings some easy scores.

Hopewell dominated the second game with some good net play from senior Gabrielle Stala and several kills from  junior Lauryn Driscoll. The Vikings led 5-0 in the third game but the Cougars would stay in striking distance until the late game rally.

Blackhawk led 4-0 in the fourth game on the serves of senior Makenna Malinowski. The Cougars used some great play from junior Nikki Beatty and Schramm, the Cougars led 12-4 and the Vikings would get no closer than five points down the remainder of the game.

It was the same story in the fifth and deciding game, Blackhawk led 3-0 on Malinowski’s serves, the big move would come midway thru the game when Guthrie inserted senior Brianna Camp in to serve. Camp was able to get five straight points to put Blackhawk up 11-4 and in command.

The Cougars did a good job, taking Driscoll out of the match, especially in the fourth and fifth games. Schramm said since they have played the Hopewell girls so many times that it is a mind game between the teams, knowing what their girls will do in certain situations and what has to be done to defend against that. Senior Hannah Pringle said it was a goal to beat Hopewell this season,  they came close in her freshman year.

Blackhawk will host New Castle on Thursday night, the next Hometown Volleyball broadcast is October 8th at home against Beaver. The Bobcats handed the Cougars their only section loss on the season.

Tags: Blackhawk