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Casey denies Lincoln 2-1

NO SWEEP

September 08, 2010|Nancy Leedy

LADY PATRIOT volleyball coach Amanda Massey-Wiles watches the action from the sidelines, right, during 45th District play at Casey County. Kylene Williams goes high at the net to try and block this return by Casey’s Haley Murphy. Looking on are official Willie Hoskins and Lady Pats Heather Frith, Samantha Torres, Samantha Anderson and Ashley VonLinger. (Photo by Nancy Leedy)

LIBERTY – The Lincoln County Lady Patriot volleyball team’s hopes for a 45th District sweep were crushed Tuesday night at Liberty as the host Casey County Lady Rebels claimed a 2-0 match win.

Casey County won in straight sets defeating a lackluster Lady Pat squad 25-21, 25-14.

Lincoln (10-7, 2-1 45th District) played a close game with Casey in game one of the match, but fell behind early in game two and could never catch up.

“Our performance tonight was a shock,” said Lady Pat coach Amanda Massey-Wiles. “It wasn’t Lincoln volleyball in any way. It just was not.”

“This was an important game to let slide by and I’m really disappointed in how we performed tonight.”

Massey-Wiles said the off-game could be the result of a five-match stand at the Kentucky Basketball Academy in Lexington over the weekend and a few ailing athletes on the Lady Patriot squad.

“Honestly, I do believe that probably made a difference,” she said. “We came off a really long weekend in the Lafayette Tournament where we played five matches, and we had a few girls out sick over the weekend that missed practice. I really think it affected us and we just came out here a little bit unprepared.”

It didn’t help that Casey (5-6, 1-1 district) was a strong corps of athletes eager to topple the district leader and claim another Lady Rebel victory.

“Casey played great. Casey is the kind of team that doesn’t like to let a ball hit the floor so they will fight for every pass, every dig,” Massey-Wiles said. “That’s something that cannot afford their opponent to relax or be off their game. They used that to their advantage tonight.”

Casey held the upper hand for most of Tuesday’s match, with Lincoln forced to play catch up in both games. The Lady Patriots did get up on the Lady Rebels 1-0 in the first match, but Haley Murphy served up two points to put Casey on top 2-1 and Lincoln never led again – in the match.

Despite a rocky performance, Lincoln still challenged Casey in the first game and forced five ties. Emma Hogue ended the string of ties when she served up five straight points to set Casey up for the 25-21 game one win.

“Saturday in the KBA tourney, we just got a little bit out of sync and it stuck with us. We sort of got in a bad pattern and it carried over,” Massey-Wiles said. “I know what we’re capable of and this wasn’t it. I want to see what we’re capable of in upcoming games.”

The Lady Rebels took Lincoln out of contention early in game two, putting up 20 points before the Lady Pats hit double figures. Casey’s biggest lead in the 25-14 match win was 12 points, 20-8.

“We fully expected to be able to regroup by the second game and it went the opposite direction,” said Massey-Wiles. “Hopefully, we can fine tune some things in practice to get us back on track because we were moving forward, and we don’t want to move back. Hopefully, the next time we face Casey, we’ll be on our game instead of what we saw tonight.”

“Next time, we need to come ready to play.”

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