Published: August 13, 2008 12:09 am            

A good way to start

Lady Hornets notch win for new coach in season opener

A new season and a new era for volleyball at Huntsville High School got off to an awfully slow start, but once the Lady Hornets got warmed up they took care of business Tuesday and spiked a feisty Tarkington team in three straight games, 25-23, 25-18 and 25-21.

The win was Brittany Brumbelow’s first as a head coach. She got the varsity job at HHS this summer after longtime coach Debbie Hightower resigned.

Brumbelow said she was never nervous on the bench, even when the Lady Hornets fell behind 8-2 in the first game.

“We got off to a very slow start,” Brumbelow said, “but I knew we weren’t playing up to our potential. I knew as long as we started playing up to our potential, we would be fine. We were a little nervous, I guess. It was the first game and it was a home game, so that’s natural.”

Huntsville did not lead until junior Caitlin Germany hammered a kill to the floor to make it 24-23 in the opening game. With another spike, senior Chelsea Baker put the finishing touches on an impressive comeback.

Quickly, Huntsville jumped out to a 10-0 lead in the second game. Junior setter Tayler Gray did some damage from the serving line, firing her hard jump serve at the Lady Longhorns.

Just when it seemed like Tarkington was out of gas, the Lady Longhorns found a spurt of energy and turned game two into quite a contest. Tarkington, which dropped a five-game home match to Huntsville to open the 2007 season, roared back, scoring eight of the next 10 points.

After Huntsville senior Ishara McAdams scored on a nifty cross-court hit to make it 15-11, Tarkington rallied again and got within a point at 17-16.

An ace from senior Liz Fry came at an opportune time. Senior Sara Vaughn followed Fry’s ace with a kill that put Huntsville on top by five at 22-17. Like she did in the opening game, Baker put a cap on the second game with a nice shot that found the floor.

Huntsville opened up a 5-0 lead in the third game, but Tarkington fought back and kept it close. McAdams ended a long rally with a thunderous spike that put the Lady Hornets on top 17-13. Tarkington had a little left in its tank, but after getting within one again, the Lady Hornets closed out the match on a kill by Vaughn and two Longhorn hitting errors.

“We fought out there as a team tonight,” said Gray, who passed out 41 assists Tuesday. “We’re scrappy. We got off to a slow start, but we recovered. Then we got out to a 10-0 lead and let them come back. We can’t let teams do that. I still think we’ve improved a lot since our scrimmages last week.”

Germany led the Lady Hornets with 13 kills. Vaughn added nine, Baker had eight and McAdams contributed five. Sophomore Kasey Haralson came off the bench and added two spikes. Gray had two more. Germany also had three blocks, while McAdams and Haralson added two stuffs apiece.

“I saw a lot of great stuff out there tonight,” Brumbelow said with a smile. “Once we started getting some great passes, we got some great hits. We also got more aggressive as the match went on, and I liked that. Caitlin got a lot of hits, but we spread it out pretty good tonight.”

Brumbelow said the Lady Hornets have some work to do before they can declare themselves ready for the District 18-4A season, which starts Sept. 12 at Willis.

“Our passing and our serve-receive are probably our biggest weaknesses right now,” the coach said. “We’ve also got to be aggressive from the get-go.”

The Lady Hornets play again Thursday in the first round of the Austin ISD Tournament. Huntsville plays San Antonio Sam Houston at 11 a.m., Pflugerville Hendrickson at 3 p.m. and Caldwell at 6 p.m,. Then Friday, the Lady Hornets play Austin Travis at 9 a.m. All of those matches will be played at Bowie High School in South Austin.

On Saturday, the tournament concludes at the Delco Center in Northeast Austin. The gold first-place game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.

        

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