By Michael Lindsay
The Stone Memorial/Cumberland County volleyball rivalry picked up right where it left off Thursday evening as the Lady Panthers defeated the Lady Jets in 5 sets, 3-2.
“My girls really put the work in,” said Stone Memorial head coach Brooklyn Buck. “Our defense really showed up and everybody believed in each other. We really needed this; tonight showed we had some grit.”
Thursday’s match at Stone Memorial was the fourth consecutive match to go 5 sets between the teams dating back to last season, including the District 7-2A and Region 4-2A championships.
Cumberland County took the first set as a block by Tessa Hayes secured the 25-21 victory. Stone Memorial bounced back to take the second set via a Lucy Grothe kill to tie the match at one set each.
“It’s never going to be easy, especially against Cumberland County,” said Buck. “We really pushed and I’m proud of them.”
Stone Memorial controlled the third set as they jumped out to a 13-5 lead before winning the set 25-12 to take a 2-1 advantage. With their backs against the wall, Cumberland County won the fourth set 25-20 to force a winner-take-all fifth set to 15.
Stone Memorial jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the fifth and held off Cumberland County en route to a 15-8 victory to win the match, 3-2.
“I told them to not dig an early hole,” said Buck. “With losing the fourth, we had to come back even stronger. I told them to keep trusting each other and they definitely did that. It’s huge to get this one.”
Up next for Stone Memorial is a home match against Cannon County on Tuesday while Cumberland County is set to face the Knox Trailblazers on Saturday morning.
