Published: October 01, 2008 02:44 am      

Lady Eagles take Lady Indians to three games

BEREA — The outcome was the same, however this time around, there certainly was a lot more drama.

After blasting district rival Madison Southern just more than a month ago in Richmond, Madison Central had to grind out a 2-1 (25-20, 18-25, 25-17) win on Tuesday in Berea in the final regular-season meeting between the schools.

The Lady Indians trailed 9-5 in the final game, but behind the solid serving of Jennifer Mounts and net play of Whitney Holker and Andrea Behm, they rallied for the victory.

“I said all along that Southern was going to be a much different team than what they where at the beginning of the season. They proved that tonight. Bill (Yarnall) is an excellent coach — and you can see it. His girls have the fundamentals.”

In the first meeting between the district rivals, Southern won just 16 points in an very quick 2-0 (25-3, 25-13) setback. The Lady Eagles had leads in every game this time, before Central pulled out another victory.

“The girls are doing what I tell them,” Yarnall said. “They’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. They played a great game. We knew that this was a learning year and we are making the best of it. I couldn’t ask any more of them.”

After splitting the first two games, Central opened up a 5-3 lead on a service winner from Behm and a kill from Morgan Floyd.

Southern came back to tie the game, then took the lead (6-5) after a long rally that featured several outstanding plays by both teams.

Then on back-to-back plays, the Lady Indians were forced to forfeit a point for being out of rotation.

“It was an error we, the coaches, should have seen,”

Morrow said. “That was a coaching error and that could have made the difference, and that’s my fault.”

Central went on to win six of the next game points, including a pair of kills by Kelsea Dawson, to pull even (11-11). Mounts put the Lady Indians in front for good with four-straight hard serves, highlighted by an ace.

Holker and Behm made the lead hold up with a handful of kills.

“They were dominant at the net,” Morrow said of Holker and Behm. “But, I think our smartest player at the net was Kelsea Dawson. She put the ball where they weren’t. But, I thought they all did well.”

Behm had a kill and Holker a block in the closing points of the first game for Central (10-10). Southern bolted out to a 5-0 lead in the second game behind the serving of Ashley Alexander.

The Lady Indians rallied to take the lead later in the game, but Brittany Calhoun had a block/kill, Sarah Cook had a service winner and Nikki Abney had a block as Southern (4-19) pulled back in front.

“My girls, they came out in the second game ready to go,” Yarnall said. “They wanted it and they showed it. That third game, unfortunately slipped away from us.”

Central will take on Tates Creek Thursday at home before wrapping up the regular season with matches next week against Estill County and Southern Laurel.

“I feel like the kids are finally starting to step up some,” Morrow said. “We are still making some mental errors. When we panic, we play panic ball. We ran some plays tonight an did some thing that we hadn’t done before.”

Southern is scheduled to play this weekend in the Fillies Fall Fling in Harrison County.