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Daigle picks up 1,000th career assist as North Putnam sweeps Bethesda Christian
BAINBRIDGE – The North Putnam Cougar volleyball team had several ups-and-downs in a non-conference matchup with the Bethesda Christian Patriots on Tuesday night.
The hosts celebrated a sweep over the Patriots 25-18, 25-23, 25-22 while also celebrating senior Lexi Daigle crossing the 1,000-career assist mark.
North seemed to dominate at times but Bethesda would not go away as several big rallies with balls getting returned at odd angles and off the rafters perplexed the Cougars at times. North’s power was answered by the Patriots directional game not allowing the Cougars to pull away in any of the sets.
The Cougars improved their record to 14-6, while Bethesda dropped to 7-4.
“We were used to seeing some balls get put down that got returned in some weird ways. (Bethesda Christian) is scrappy, props to them. I think we could play better than that,” North Putnam head coach Jenny Heron said.
The Cougars were able to turn a 6-4 deficit in the first set into a 12-7 lead as Saylor Carrell had a big kill sandwiched between aces from Alexa Stiff and Daigle. North would increase its lead to 23-12 behind Phoebe Fouts and Ashleigh Riley driving home several kills.
The Patriots made a small run late as the Cougars had some errors but finished the set with a 25-18 victory.
The big news of the first set was that Lexi Daigle was presented with a commemorative gold volleyball as she eclipsed the 1,000-assist mark in her career.
“Lexi got 1,000 assists tonight; she was three away going in. She does a lot for us as a setter and this program. It was great to see her get that,” Heron said.
North looked like it was going to run away with the second set after jumping out to a 7-1 lead behind three service aces from Addi Osburn.
Bethesda Christian picked up a couple of net aces to stay in the game, then went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead to 14-13. The teams played evenly with the Patriots looking like they may get the victory leading 22-19, but the Cougar power was too much.
Mack Mason had a kill and an ace during the final 6-1 run as the Cougars went up 2-0 with the 25-23 win.
“It’s a challenge when it is a different game than we usually see. We have to pick it up no matter what style we play against. I think we will later in the week and moving forward,” Heron said.
The third set was tightly contested throughout. The Patriots led early, but Mason and Riley scored all six points in a 6-1 run yet could not pull away as Bethesda’s Layla Smith had three aces that gave the Patriots an 11-8 lead.
Fouts ended the mini-run with a big block and Carrell came in from the left side to hammer home a couple of kills as the Cougars led 18-16 before the Patriots Sydney Goodin scored four of five-straight points to give the visitors a 21-18 lead.
It became ‘Riley Time’ after that as the senior went on a scoring spree, racking up five points on kills in the final run to give the Cougars their 25-22 win and the sweep.
“Ashleigh had some great swings tonight. Some of those swings were returned, but she is important to us and she picked us up at times,” Heron said.
The Cougars will host county and conference rival Cloverdale on Thursday and travel to Indian Creek on Saturday to finish a busy week.