Lima Central Catholic’s Courtney Vanmeter hits a spike against Bath’s Vanessa Ruble (17) and Claire Foust during Tuesday night’s match at LCC.
Don Speck | The Lima News
The Bath Wildkittens came into Lima Central Catholic on Tuesday night and grabbed their fifth win on the season over the Thunderbirds in three straight games.
Bath started the game with energy and intensity that carried them through until the end. The Wildkittens played the first game fast taking an early lead over the T-Birds. Even though LCC made a run towards the end of the first, the play of seniors Claire Foust and Claire Armentrout, along with junior Vanessa Ruble, was good enough to get Bath the win 25-20 to go up 1-0.
In the second game, it was a battle back and forth between both squads. LCC challenged Bath to tie the game up 8-8 early in the second. However, part of her 16 kills, 17 digs, and four blocks came in handy in the second set, as Bath’s Foust took over with physical presence in the middle front to help her team go up 19-13 with nine straight points on the serves of Ruble. The Wildkittens took the second game 25-20 to go up 2-0 after senior Madi Ripley made a block up front to put things away.
The third set saw the Thunderbirds come out with tons of energy as they tried to match the intensity of Bath and get back in the game, but the Wildkittens were too much as Bath started off the game on a 6-0 run. Foust remained a force in the middle and Bath stayed consistent with a healthy mix of slow, light taps over the net, and heavy and speedy kills that allowed them to take a 19-6 lead after Bath was up 10-6. Ruble’s 30 total assists was a big factor as well, especially in the third game. Bath was able to finish the third game with a win 25-17 on a quick tap over from Ruble as they would improve to 5-6 overall with a 3-0 win.
Foust credited her team for the victory but knew there are some things to work on as they move forward. “I feel like we did an alright job today. We definitely could play better. We let them come back on us when we had a pretty big leads, but we hustled a lot, so I feel like that helped us a lot.”
Bath head coach Michael Lawrence agreed with the senior about the Wildkittens play. “We finished the game, but I would have liked to have finished with a little more intensity, I thought we got a little relaxed toward the end of each game and kind of let them get back into it more than what I was hoping for, but we did get the win each game, so that was a plus.”
After the win, Foust said she is optimistic for the season. “We’ve gotten a lot better than we’ve had in the past years, this year’s probably one of our best years and we are just trying to have a winning record because in years past we have not been that good, so we have been kind of like climbing the ladder and I think we’ve done pretty good so far … we just try to work hard in practice, coach is really hard on us, (more) than people have been on us in years past. We’re really trying to have that winning record this year and I feel like we have the talent to do it … we’re on a winning streak right now, so we are trying to keep that, and I feel like that just builds us up a little bit, and we’re not as down going into the next game.”
Bath Leaders: Claire Foust – 16 kills, 17 digs, 4 blocks; Claire Armentrout – 4 aces, 4 digs, 6 kills; Vanessa Ruble – 30 assists
Justin Dierkes wrote this story for LimaScores.com. Reach The Lima News sports department at 567-242-0451.
