ELIZABETHTOWN – East Bladen fought off a pair of match points and rallied to edge St. Pauls 2-1 Thursday in Three Rivers Conference junior varsity volleyball action by set scores of 26-24, 16-25 and 18-16.
Molly Evans knocked in a service point, and Rylee Brice fired in an ace as the Lady Eagles edged in front 4-2 in the deciding set. Heavyn Smith smacked in a pair of service points to pad the lead to 8-4. Zoe Smith stretched the East lead to 10-6 with a service point.
St.Pauls rode a 7-2 run to a 13-12 lead, but Evans tied the set 13-13 with another service point. Bridget Taylor belted a return winner that tied the set again at 15-15, and Lacy Young drilled in an ace for a 16-15 East lead. Young cracked a winning return that jumped East ahead 17-16, and Heavyn Smith’s set point ended the match.
Evans, Young and Zoe Smith led the Lady Eagles with 7 service points each. Taylor and Heavyn Smith followed with 3 service points each, and Brice tallied 2 service points.
Four service points from Evans and 3 more from Taylor kept East Bladen even at 15-15 in the 1st set. A trio of Young service points knotted the score 20-20, before Zoe Smith served out the set with 4 consecutive service points for a 26-24 win.
The teams traded points in the 2nd set until the Lady Bulldogs opened up a 12-7 lead and grew it to 19-13 en route to claiming the set.
The Lady Eagles evened their TRC record at 3-3 and are 4-5 overall. East Bladen will visit East Columbus Friday at 4:30.
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