Lady Lions rally to overtake R.L. Turner
September 30, 2009

By DAVID CLAYBOURN
Herald-Banner Staff

GREENVILLE -- Greenville’s Lady Lions rallied from a 2-0 deficit to overtake R.L. Turner, 22-25, 24-26, 25-9, 25-19, 15-13, in District 10-4A volleyball on Tuesday night in the Lions Den.

“It was ugly but we’ll take it,” said Lady Lions coach JoAnna Vaden. “They (the Lady Lions) fought for it. That’s one good thing. They could have given up at any time.”

The Lady Lions were also missing three players due to illness.

“It was to my kids’ credit that they pushed it out,” said Vaden.

Greenville started slowly, trailing by margins of 10-6, 14-11 and 15-12 in the first game. The Lady Lions pulled up into a 20-20 tie after freshman Maddy Crabtree served for an ace.

But R.L. Turner capitalized on a couple of Greenville miscues to go up 23-20, then a dink by Keva David to make it 24-21 and won a long rally to claim the first game, 25-22.

Greenville built a 24-19 lead in game two thanks to some big kills from T.J. Holmes, Morgan Bloyed and Maygan Bloyed and an ace from Shanterria Riley.

But the visiting Lady Lions dodged five game points due to some miscues by Greenville plus a block from David and an ace from the left-handed server, Kandace Lewis.

R.L. Turner then put away the Lady Lions with back-to-back kills from Kyrah Lewis and Lewis to win that game, 26-24.

Greenville finally got rolling in game three, jumping out to a 5-1 lead after Morgan Bloyed served for two aces. Emelie Kilgore put away back-to-back kills and Morgan Bloyed surprised R.L. Turner with a set kill as Greenville’s lead climbed to 9-4.

Morgan Bloyed and Holmes put away two more big kills and Crabtree and Shanterria Riley served for aces as the Lady Lions’ lead climbed to 22-9. Greenville then won three of the next four points to capture that game.

Greenville led for most of game four as Meghan Litchfield served for back-to-back aces and Morgan Bloyed put away back-to-back kills to give Greenville a 9-6 lead.

Kilgore put away two more kills to make it 18-10 and Maygan Bloyed had a big kill on the way to a 25-19 win in game four.

Kilgore and Litchfield dominated at the net early to help the Lady Lions roll out to a 6-3 lead in game five. R.L. Turner battled back with blocks from Maggie Vickers and Melissa Carrillo and a kill from Vickers to tie it at 7-7.

It stayed close the rest of the way. Maygan Bloyed put down a kill off a set from Litchfield to make it 13-12, Greenville.

But R.L. Turner answered with Avery Vascoe’s kill to tie it at 13-13.

Maygan Bloyed’s block put Greenville back up at 14-13 and then the freshman served for the match-winning point as R.L. Turner sent a shot wide after an errant pass.

Morgan Bloyed and Litchfield both finished with 10 kills to lead Greenville and Maygan Bloyed added nine and Kilgore finished with eight.

Riley paced Greenville in digs with 14, Crabtree had seven and Morgan Bloyed added six.

Morgan Bloyed set for 24 assists and Litchfield added six assists.

Kilgore led in blocks with four, Litchfield added three and Morgan Bloyed and Hannah Johnson both added two.

Greenville squared its district record at 3-3 and improved to 14-16 for the season.

Greenville’s freshmen upped their season record to 21-5 with a 22-25, 25-19, 25-11 victory.

R.L. Turner took the junior varsity match, 25-15, 21-25, 25-19.