Lady Highlanders volleyball team cruise to 3-0 victory over Nantahala
Photo by Christopher Smith/Staff India Clark goes up for a kill against Nantahala.
The Highlands School varsity girls’ volleyball team dominated last week’s matchup against Nantahala, 3-0.
Ashlynn Wilson got things started serving strong for the Lady Highlanders.
Emma Minton had a tip to get the next point followed by another strong serve by Wilson to get the Lady Highlanders up 3-0 in the first set.
Two kills by India Clark brought the score to 5-0, and Wilson tacked on three more great serves to increase the lead 8-0 before Nantahala called a time out.
Minton scored to more points after the timeout, followed by four more good serves by Wilson to make it 14-0.
Three more points by Minton and two more serves by Wilson brought the score to 20-0. A combination of points from Minton and Clark ended the first set in a shutout 25-0.
In the second set, Nantahala hit the ball out of bounds on the first point and Wilson brought her strong serve back in the second set to make it 3-0.
Clark had a strong kill to increase the Lady Highlander lead to 4-0, before Nantahala scored their first point of the match. Clark got the point back with a tip over the net to make it 5-1.
Clark had another tip, and several strong serves to increase the Lady Highlander lead to 9-2.
After two more points, Clark hit more unreturnable serves to make it 14-2. Brandy Zegal had a tip over the net to make it 15-2, before Clark came back with more unreturnable serves making it 19-2.
Nantahala managed to score three more points in the second set before a mishit ended the set 25-5.
In the third set, Minton started things off for the Lady Highlanders going up 1-0.
HHS was able to go up 10-0 before Nantahala scored their first point of the third. After two more NS points, a tip by Zegal and two strong serves from Clark, the Lady Highlanders were up 17-3 in the last set of the match.
A few mishits by the Lady Highlanders gave a couple of points to Nantahala before the end of the game, but HHS was able to hold on to take the final set 25-9.
“I think our girls played really well,” HHS head coach Desiray Schmitt said. “We are actually missing a lot of our team today, because they are quarantined. Overall, I think they played pretty well, and I was glad to get other girls in that don’t usually get to play.”
This year, Schmitt said they are going to focus on communication.
“I know last year we struggled with communication so that is going to be the first and foremost thing we are going to focus on,” Schmitt said. “I think our only downfall is going to be communication. We did pretty well on it today but looking forward we need to keep working on it.”
The Lady Highlanders will take the court again against Cherokee in Cherokee today at 5 p.m.
- By Christopher Smith