SEALY — The Columbus High School volleyball team traveled to Sealy High School for an area match up Sept. 1 at Tigers Gym in Sealy and won by a final score of 25-15, 27-25, 25-15.
Columbus had a pretty strong lead for the majority of this match except for the second set, where both teams went back and forth. A great outing on offense and doing just enough on defense won Columbus this match.
“A lot of players con- tributing right now," said Columbus head volleyball coach Kayley Johns.
“I think our seniors are stepping up as great leaders. Our back row is passing really well and keeping us in system. We’ve got so many players finishing big plays or long rallies in a big way.
It’s everybody. We’re playing as a team. It’s a lot of fun when we’re playing like this as a team, so I'm super proud of them for stepping up. We talked about kind of having a lull in the second set every once in a while and we did again today to where we were kind of playing down, but then we stepped it back up in the third set and that’s what our expectation is."
Lady Cardinals junior outside hitter Harper Gerik was dominant on offense and had a bunch of kills throughout the match.
"I just play my game," Gerik said. “Do the small mechanics and just get it done."
A back and forth start in the first set led to Columbus stretching their lead and scoring six points in a row on all kills besides a tip ball, ace, and ball out of bounds from Sealy to take an 11-4 lead.
The Lady Cardinals kept this same kind of lead for the remainder of the set on tons of kills and a few mistakes from Sealy to win it 25-15.
The second set was a lot closer and Sealy even took an early lead at 9-7 and scored four consecutive points to do it on a block, an ace, a ball out of bounds from Colum- bus, and a kill.
Both teams traded punches and were within a couple points of each other for the remainder of the set on all different kinds of points, which included a big kill from Sealy senior hitter Baylee Brandes towards the end of the set to give Sealy a 22-20 advantage.
More back and forth scoring led to a mishit from Sealy to put Columbus ahead 2524, then a ball in the net from Sealy and a final kill from Columbus won the Lady Car- dinals the set 27-25.
Columbus took a big lead early in the third set at 8-1 on more kills and two aces in a row from senior defensive specialist Candee Pitchford.
Sealy climbed back and made it 11-9 on a few kills and a few mistakes from Co- lumbus, then the Lady Cardi nals stretched their advantage back to 16-11, which includ - ed a couple aces, a few kills, and a ball in the net from Sealy.
Columbus gained an even bigger advantage toward the end of the set on a bunch of mistakes from Sealy and an ace, then two kills in a row won the set and match for Columbus at 25-15.
