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Thornhill, Thomas help lead Curwensville volleyball over Clearfield
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
By Jon Christoff Sports Writer
HYDE - In a game like volleyball, momentum can be swung in the blink of an eye - especially when rival schools take the court.
After being pushed to the limit by a winless Clearfield squad celebrating Senior Night in the first set, Curwensville's Taylor Thornhill recorded one of her game-high 14 kills to give her squad an 8-7 lead and the serve early in the second.
Lady Tide teammate Audrey Thomas then accompanied the junior middle hitter in swinging the momentum firmly to Curwensville's side for the rest of the night on Tuesday.
Thomas and Thornhill engineered a 13-point service run to deflate the Lady Bisons and end any hopes they had of picking up their first win of the season against their rivals.
After eking out a 25-21 win, the Lady Tide handled Clearfield 25-8 and 25-16 in the final two games.
"The game is about emotion," said Curwensville head coach Sandy Bailor. "You've got to have a lot of emotion (because) sometimes the momentum will swing.
"In that second game when Audrey started serving and Taylor started hitting, the momentum went our way. The game is about emotion and momentum, and I think that's what you saw tonight."
Thornhill and Thomas led the Lady Tide offensively after combining for a solid showing in the third set. Thomas finished with 22 assists and a game-high 20 service points, while Thornhill had five blocks and eight service points - seven of which were aces - to go along with her kills.
Curwensville's Rachel Michaels also had a solid night at the net with 10 kills.
"We can't beat their height," Clearfield head coach Bob Peters said. "Both Taylor and Rachel can kill the ball really well. We couldn't stop it.
"They put a run together that we just couldn't overcome. I'm disappointed with the loss, but I think we played better tonight. We'll try to get the last one on Thursday."
Thornhill broke Lady Bison Samantha Broad's serve with a kill, and that was just the beginning of her second-set dominance. During Thomas' 13-point service run, Thornhill had five kills and two blocks.
Thomas' 14th serve found its way into the net, but the Lady Tide regained serve before Clearfield made up any ground.
Curwensville's Lindsay Barrett served out the set, and Thornhill had kills on the last two points to give the Lady Tide a comfortable two-set lead.
"Clearfield was giving it to us until we settled down and started playing the game we needed to play," said Bailor.
"I told them they needed to stay focused, and they needed to watch what was going on, on the other side of the net. ... I told them, ‘this team is hungry. They want to win and they'll beat you,' but they seemed to regroup and come back to play a good volleyball match."
After Curwensville's Jayme McKenzie served the first six points of the third set, Clearfield's Adrienne Stucke responded with a four-point run of her own to cut into the deficit.
The Thornhill-Thomas tandem had an answer, though.
Thomas added her final three service points to make it a 13-7 game, while Thornhill had kills on the final two points of Thomas' run to give the Lady Tide a big enough cushion to close out the match.
The opening set was a see-saw battle that saw neither team gain any momentum.
Broad helped Clearfield take a two-point lead with five straight service points, but Curwensville was able to rally and close out the win with back-to-back aces from Thornhill.
"I thought, the first game, we played probably the best we played all year," Peters said. "We hung right in there and probably could have won it. The girls played well tonight.
"It's an emotional night, but they played well. Curwensville is a big rivalry, so they wanted to win it for the seniors."
The Lady Tide improved to 9-6 on the season, while the Lady Bisons are 0-17.
Both teams are back on the court Thursday with Curwensville hosting Brockway and Clearfield traveling to Brookville.
The Lady Tide also claimed the jayvee game, 25-20 and 25-11.
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