Eagles avenge Friday night loss with county volleyball title

ROACHDALE -- In less than 24 hours, South Putnam avenged its Friday night football loss to North Putnam when the Eagles dominated the Cougars 25-7, 25-13 and claimed the 2009 Putnam County volleyball championship.

"This is the first time South Putnam has won the county championship since 1986," SPHS coach Lindsey Blackman said. "Today I give all the credit to our seniors, the way they led on the court and gave this team confidence.

"In fact, I can't really pick out any individuals in either game that stood out. It was all nine of them on the team and all six of them on the court that did what they needed to do to make this happen," Blackman added.

After trading a couple of points back and forth with the Cougars, South Putnam took control of the set and never relinquished it.

Brooke Boetjer was the spark the had eventually led to the fire that consumed the Cougars defense in the first game when she got two kills back-to-back followed by an ace by Kendra Latham, giving the eagles a 5-2 lead.

The Cougars slowed South Putnam's momentum for a second when Megan Robinson came up for a stuff block, but it wasn't enough to stop the rampaging Eagles. The two teams battled back and forth and North Putnam got within four at the 10-6 mark, but that would be as close to the lead it would get.

South Putnam's Ashley Wombles got hot, serving up six service points, including two aces, bumping the Eagles leadfrom four to 10. North Putnam got another point when Wombles put her serve into the net, but that didn't discourage the Eagles. It encouraged them; enough to go on a 9-0 run that had kills from Latham, Katelyn Sibbitt and Botjer. Boetjer even had two stuff blocks while Rachel Egold served up two aces.

The second set was the same story with contributions coming from Sibbitt, Wombles, Boetjer and Egold, the Eagles overpowered the Cougars 25-13 for the championship. Boetjer chipped in two kills, while Sibbitt had three kills. Wombles came in strong in the second set with two service points, two aces and a kill all in a 5-0 run that helped solidify the Eagles win while Taylor Goss three aces and six service points in the second set.

"This showing even surprised me," Balckman said. "The girls have been telling me all week that they were saving up for county because we haven't had the best week and in frustration I asked them what is it this week and Brooke just told me 'We're saving up for county' and they did.

"And Brooke as been consistently aggressive on the net for us and that combination of her and Wombles as middle hitters, to me there is no combo as middle hitters than we face as good as them and it's exciting to know that they still have another year together," Blackman added.

As for the Cougars, coach Jill Schreiber was less than pleased with her team's performance.

"We gave up and gave them that match," Schreiber said. "It depends on who shows up. It's a different team every match and I never know who is going to show up.

"When we get down, we're done. We are not a team that can rally back and play catch up. I don't think there was one time yet that we have came out on top and stayed there. We are always playing that catch up game," Schreiber added. "We weren't attacking. We didn't attack at all. We just beat ourselves."

Other Notes - Earlier in the day, South Putnam defeated the Greencastle Tiger Cubs 26-24, 25-10 earning the right to face the Cougars in the championship game while North Putnam defeated the Clovers 25-12, 25-22 for their championship bid.

The Tiger Cubs had some impressive showings from Kayla Nobles who had 10 digs, five points and two aces on 10-for-10 serving while Kandice Phillips had 10 digs, nine assists, six points and three aces on 10-for-10 serving and Braden Amis had six blocks and three kills. Jessie Bennett led the tiger Cubs offense with five kills.

Cloverdale had some good showings from Holly McCammon who put up six kills while Brandanne Toney had five kills and one ace and Sam Williams had two kills and an ace. Martika Byrd had one kill.