LAKEWOOD — Kills got contagious for the Cougars.
Once Lakewood loosened up, the Cougars started raining kills on Granite Falls to complete a sweep (25-21, 25-21, 25-18) in Cascade Conference volleyball action Sept. 21.
“We have so many options,” said Lakewood coach Tasha Kryger. “Anytime we can to go anybody and put it front row or back row.”
The Cougars showed that much out of the gate, taking a 7-2 lead in the first game, which they didn’t relinquish. Cougars flew all around the floor, playing inspired defense, throughout the match, allowing them to extend play when vulnerable until they were able to score points.
“They just know each other so well and have played together so much this year, they know what each other will do,” said Kryger.
The second game saw the Cougars have to dig out of a 7-2 hole early on. Instead of attacking Lakewood, Granite Falls switched to a finesse game to throw the Cougars off.
“I felt like they were in control of the pace of the match,” said Kryger. “We like to play a little bit faster and get attacked, but we picked up the tip they started using and made the adjustment.”
But Lakewood rallied to take it’s first lead of the game at 15-14.
In the third game, the Cougars showed their explosive potential, running off a 12-1 lead behind six kills from senior Hayley Liebel in that stretch.
“Our passes were great and so were our serves,” said Leibel. “And we knew we didn’t want to let them back in. We’ve come back on teams in situations like this, and we didn’t want that to happen.”
Leibel finished with a game-high 17 kills.
In the third game, all of Lakewood’s hitters jumped into the mix, attacking from all over and frustrating Granite Falls.
The Tigers didn’t have an answer for Leibel and her hard-hitting counterpart, junior Brittany Parmentier, who finished with eight kills and seemed to carry the team in the second game.
Distributing Lakewood’s hitters was setter Samantha Adams, who had 35 assists and 10 digs.
“Sam does so much behind the scenes that people don’t even know all that she does for us,” Kryger said.
The win improves the Cougars’ record to 3-1.
Kaylee Diggs finished the match with 10 digs and nine kills and Allie Hernandez had 15 digs.
