By By Matthew Nascone
Rena Hollingsworth and Brittney Thompson powered the Northview Lady Chiefs volleyball team past the South Walton Lady Seahawks Thursday in Bratt, 3-0 (25-23, 25-17, 25-11).
Senior setter Hollingsworth and junior middle attacker Thompson combined for 12 aces, seven kills and five blocks in the Lady Chiefs' dominant win, their first in district play.
"Rena was our big server in that match and she has been our big server for a while," NHS head coach Betty Heaton said. "And Brittney's net play was great. She has improved 110 percent from last year at the net and she was dominating out there tonight from the middle position."
The Lady Chiefs (4-5, 1-2) stumbled out of the gates in the first set, going down 7-2. But then Thompson served the Lady Chiefs to 8-5 and NHS swapped the lead with SWHS until the Lady Chiefs tied the set at 18-18 and Hollingsworth registered three aces and four points for a 21-18 advantage.
NHS never lost the lead and won 25-23 on a serve by senior Hope Graham.
The second set was more of the same for the Lady Chiefs in the early going, as South Walton came out on fire with six aces from two different servers to gain a 8-2 lead before NHS was energized by a big block from Thompson.
Thompson served the Lady Chiefs to a 10-8 advantage with eight straight points on her serve, including two aces. Senior left side attacker Kalyn Vaughan added two kills on assists by Hollingsworth.
The set stayed at around a three-point advantage for the Lady Chiefs until SWHS closed the gap to 17-16. NHS gained serve and senior attacker Kirsten Robinson grabbed four points on her serve to 22-17 Thompson served the set out after South Walton scored one at 25-17.
"The biggest thing for us in this match was our serving," Heaton said. "The aggressiveness of our serves was the definite key factor in the win. We stayed positive throughout the match, no matter what was happening. The sets got close, but we did what we had to do to win."
The third set was pure domination by the Lady Chiefs, as they took the set 25-11 with more of that aggressive service game.
Hollingsworth finished the match with nine aces, five assists, two kills and two digs. Thompson had five kills, five blocks, three aces and one dig. Robinson and Vaughan added four assists, four kills and three aces each. Senior libero Lexi Angeles had four assists and one ace and senior left side attacker Kasey Baggett had four kills. Senior middle attacker Camden Loncar added two kills and two blocks.
The JV squad also came away with a win Thursday night, 2-1 (19-25, 26-24, 15-13).
NHS 25 26 25
Flomaton 6 24 8
The Lady Chiefs traveled to Flomaton for a match Sept. 18 and won 3-0 (25-6, 26-24, 25-8).
Hollingsworth had 11 assists, 10 aces, two kills and two digs. Thompson had 13 kills, six blocks, three aces and two digs. Loncar had six blocks and one kill and Graham had six assists.