Cougar volleyball team get back to its winning ways

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

ROACHDALE--Even though the Monrovia Bulldogs' athletic department switched conferences this past year, the North Putnam Cougars' volleyball team still kept them on the schedule.

The Cougars (8-14 1-2WCC) gave the Bulldogs a going away present Tuesday night. They put their foot down and sent the Bulldogs away in three sets. The Cougars won all three, 25-15, 26-24 and 25-8.

After only a one-point lead in the first set, 12-11, the Cougars went on a 13-4 run to win the set. They played calm and on task, despite Monrovia making a mid-set push. This helped them capture the set.

"I thought we played fairly well," Cougars' coach Brandy Dixon said. "I knew that Monrovia was probably not going to run a very quick offense. Sometimes it's hard for teams to adjust, but I thought we did a good job setting the pace of the game."

Whatever happened in the first set, flip-flopped in the second. North Putnam came out flat and the Bulldogs took advantage.

Monrovia went out to an early 9-1 lead and controlled the game in their palms.

After North Putnam called a timeout, being down 18-11, they clawed back into it and forced the Bulldogs to call a timeout, only up two, 19-17. Two service errors by Ally Grimes and Alicia Whitney helped the Cougars gain back some momentum.

"I told them in a time-out we had to have runs of three," Dixon said. "We were a little scared there, but we were able to pull it off."

The Cougars did just that and had four runs of three or more.

North Putnam finally tied the set up at 21 apiece before Monrovia took three straight points. The Cougars did not give up and they took the next five straight to go up two sets to none.

"They didn't panic and they stayed aggressive," Dixon said. "Service receptions are really what hurt us at the beginning. We just got a little bit off on our receiving. They had some tough servers. We just needed to stay aggressive."

The Cougars took their momentum gained in the final minutes of the second set and translated it in the third set.

Because of a dominant serving performance from junior Adri Millican, the Cougars rallied 10 straight points that forced the Bulldogs to take a timeout along the way. Millican had five aces for the night.

The Cougars had nothing else to look back on, so they kept moving forward and scoring points. They held the Bulldogs to only eight points to putthe exclamation point on the set.

Leaving Monrovia clueless, North Putnam got only its second win in five games. This also marks the first of those that did not go five sets. The last win came against Bethesda Christian a week ago from this match.

"I told them we only had five minutes to win," Dixon said jokingly because of the previous late matches. "I think that they realized when they came back from eight down that they were the more dominant team. Adri Millican really helped us with the serving performance she had."

Besides Millican, junior teammate Taylor Nauert, also had a dominant performance. She had 10 kills, including the final kill that won the second set. She had four kills in the final set.

The Cougars will host their final conference meet Thursday night. The competition gets much harder and it is against a rivalry team in the eyes of North Putnam fans. They will host the Greencastle Tiger Cubs starting at 7:30 p.m. The game is also set to be middle school volleyball night.

"We're going to have to be aggressive and tough defensively," Dixon said. "We cannot afford to not be mentally ready and we cannot afford to not be on our top game."


At North Putnam High School

Monrovia 15 24 8--0

North Putnam 25 26 25--3

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  • Coach Dickson not Dixon!!!

    -- Posted by NPparent2 on Wed, Oct 1, 2014, at 6:12 AM
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