Eisenhower High School's volleyball team learned another valuable lesson Thursday if you are trying to make history, don't ever take anything for granted.
The Eagles routed Lawton High, 25-11, in the first set and it appeared they were going to coast to another easy team victory. But then two things happened, the Wolverines started playing better with the Senior Night festivities now out of their short-term memory banks and the Eagles started making mistakes on a regular basis.
Fortunately for the Eagles, powerful middle hitter Nikki Smith was able to power down two straight kills and salvage a hard-fought 26-24 victory in Set 2.
From that point forward it was a brutal struggle and when the Wolverines finally pulled out a set, 25-22, the crowd really got fired up, setting up a fourth set that proved to be a real dandy.
The Eagles jumped out to a commanding 11-4 lead, but LHS rallied to knot the score at 15-all. From there every point had the crowd on its feet, with close line calls raising the excitement level even higher.
Ike was seemingly in control at 22-18 but LHS managed some big kills from Jamesha Johnson and soon it was deadlocked at 23-all. LHS actually grabbed the lead on an ace, but the Eagles scored the next three points to earn a 26-24 victory and clinch the match at 3-1.
"Wow, we almost gave it away," Ike coach Becky Martin said. "We just made too many unforced errors. We played so well early in the first set but then we let up and they started playing better. We always know that LHS is going to play its best against us and they showed tonight that they have improved. They made us work.
Wednesday May 22nd, 2013 • 1:46:49am
