Carson High's volleyball squad is back over the .500 mark after sweeping North Valleys 25-18, 25-18 and 25-21 Tuesday night at Morse Burley Gym.
Carson improved to 3-2 heading into Thursday's match at Wooster at 6 p.m.
Carson coach Justin Malley was happy to see his team carve out a win, but he wasn't enthusiastic about how his team performed.
"We didn't play with a lot of energy," Malley said. "We didn't play with focus. We did what we had to do to win. We were never in danger of losing any of the games.
"I think we saw what the freshman and JV teams did and took things for granted. I thought Courtney Hack served well, Micaela (Vowinkel) played well on the right side and Sarah (Lushina) played well when she was in there."
North Valleys led 8-4 early thanks to several hitting errors by the Senators, two service errors and a line/net violation. Carson regained the lead 10-8 thanks to a kill and block by Angela Augusta, an ace by Bailey Valente and two errors by the Panthers. North Valleys regained the lead at 13-11, scoring five of the next six points. Melanie McClure served an ace, and Carson lost two points on errant serves. Carson also had a serve-receive error and a wide kill attempt in that span.
Carson put the opening game away when it scored 12 of the next 14 points to take a 23-15 lead. Lushina and Jeanette Van Sickle had three kills each to highlight the barrage. Lushina also finished the run with two ace serves.
"We look for gaps when they set up," said Malley, who signals to his servers where he wants the ball to go. "We also look for people who might be having an off night passing the ball.
"We started slow serving the ball, but got better as the match went on."
Indeed. Carson threw away five points in the first game and two in the second. The Senators didn't miss a serve in the third game.
Carson left no doubt in Game 2, scoring 14 of the game's first 18 points. Hack served up two aces, while Valente and Christa McGahuey had one apiece. Elysse Virden contributed two kills, while Vowinkel had two kills and a stuff block in the early onslaught.
Carson maintained a 10-point bulge almost the entire game until surrendering four straight points on hitting errors which enabled North Valleys to close to 24-18. Vowinkel ended the game with a kill.
The third game lacked pace and rhythm. Both teams had trouble getting into their offenses and getting clean hits. Malley blamed that on lack of focus.
A kill by Vowinkel and two acs by Hack enabled Carson to build an 18-10 lead. The rout appeared to be on, but North Valleys had other ideas. Kellee Cranston had a couple of kills to help the Panthers close the gap to 18-14.
Carson pushed the lead to 21-15 after a Makayla Drahos kill, but North Valleys fought back to 21-20, the final point in the run coming on ace off the net by Cranston. The Panthers started to wilt, making three straight mistakes as Carson went up 24-20. The Panthers made it 24-21 when Courtney Croxon's downball went off two Carson defenders. McGahuey ended the match moments later on a nicely placed spike.