Allen East’s Savana Brooks hits a spike against Temple Christian’s Reagan Hayes during Tuesday night’s match at Temple Christian. Richard Parrish | The Lima News
Tuesday night was the second night in a row for Allen East volleyball after a 3-2 win Monday at New Riegel to start the season.
Now the Mustangs improve to 2-0 with a second win in a row as they beat the Temple Christian Pioneers three sets to none, 25-12, 25-18, 25-5.
Allen East started off the night strong gaining a commanding 20-4 lead in the first set.
However, Temple Christian fought hard to make a comeback on its home court, bouncing back with six scores in a row to make the score 20-10. Temple Christian seemed defeated at first, but the Pioneers breathed new life with that streak and made the Mustangs earn those last five points in the set. Sophomore Kaleigh Sasada made the final kill to win the first set 25-12.
In the second set, Temple Christian fought hard to try and win a set on their home court. The set started off 2-2 with the Pioneers giving it their all, but the senior Savana Brooks served up several aces in a row to take a 14-4 lead. Temple Christian made a comeback to turn a 19-8 score into 19-14. However, the Mustangs senior Soraya Jackson hit an ace at the end to grab another set win to go up 2-0 in the game with a 25-18 win.
Allen East came out of the huddle to start the third set ready for the sweep and a second win of the season. The Mustangs kept scoring over and over and didn’t look back.
Allen East went up 7-1, then 16-3 and closed out the game with a 25-5 win in the third set.
One of the few seniors on this very young Allen East team, Savana Brooks, led by example Tuesday night serving up 11 aces and grabbing four kills on the road. She knows she must step up this season as a leader to succeed.
“I definitely want to be a leader to show the younger teammates what a true leader is … lead them in the right direction so in a couple years they can be just like us,” Brooks said. “We definitely set goals for ourselves. We definitely want to be high up in the NWC, definitely want to have a winning record … me and another senior have goals set to reach 1,000 digs and kills. So, throughout the year, we just want to achieve those goals and play as hard as we can.”
Coach Lauren Basham agreed with Brooks and was proud of where her team is at early in the season.
“I’m feeling good, we get along really well, we are having a good time. It’s a new group of girls so we are young, we got some good leadership though, so I have three seniors, really strong players … we’re in game 2 so I think the nerves are gone after the first game and they’re just having a good time. I think a lot of it was just laid back, relaxed play. Soraya does a great job going after the ball and attacking it. She’s more of our power hitter so we like to see that from her… my other middle, she’s a junior, and she did well with her blocking so, one’s hitting and one’s blocking, so it’s working. I think we just got to keep going back in and grinding at it. Just keep working on whatever our weaknesses are every time we go back to practice and then just keep going after it. We’re keeping energy going, we’re having a good time and we’re having fun, and hopefully our leaders will take over. (The team chemistry) is more that we have this year, then we’ve ever had, so it’s great. The chemistry is the biggest thing right now and its great,” Basham said.
Game summary
Allen East: Brynn Richardson 4 Aces, Soraya Jackson 12 kills, 7 Aces, Savana Brooks 4 Kills & 11 Aces
Temple Christian: Brooklyn Marshall 5 Kills, 3 Assists, Grace Korwin 4 Kills, 6 Assists, Na’Talya Wilson 2 Aces
Justin Dierkes wrote this story for LimaScores.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
