Hometown Volleyball Match Recap – Central Valley

By: HSSN Staff
Thursday, September 11, 2014 | 3:58 PM

At Central Valley High School, the Central Valley Warriors girls volleyball team, in their first appearance on the MSA Sports Network, beat the Ambridge Bridgers 3-0. Scores of the three games were 25-15, 25-19, and 25-21.

Central Valley has a veteran team under Dennis Damp with 5 seniors and 3 juniors among the rotation. Coach Damp who has 5 WPIAL Boys titles to his credit, has rounded this years Warriors into a true team. Everyone contributes and they worked together in the victory over the Bridgers.

In game one Central Valley was led by the serving of senior Haley Engleman. Her slow high arcing serve baffled Ambridge as she jumped them to a 10-6 lead. Later  Sophomore Kaleah Jones a very athletic and talented player played tremendous  front court defense to earn two big points  to go up 15-11. Balen Brown a 2 year starter and junior had a service run of 8 straight points to lead the Warriors to a 21-11 lead. Game one seemed easy and Central Valley won 25-15.

In Game two the Bridgers played well and despite being down 16-11 came back to tie 18-18. The Warriors called time out and would score 7 of the last 8 points to win going away 25-19. Again Engleman would be the catalyst as she served 5 straight after the timeout to give the Warriors an insurmountable lead of 23-19.

Game three was the Bridgers best as they battled back all game long. Down by 6 they cut the lead to 17-15, down late by 7 they cut the lead to 23-19. But the Warriors were too strong. Ambridge a young team with only 2 seniors and 1 junior, just weren’t strong enough to withstand the power of the Warriors.

Central Valley had 34 kills led by Balen Brown with 11, Eryn Yuran with 7, Kaleah Jones with 6, and sophomore Chritina Kent with 4. Kent had all of hers in game three. The Warroirs also had 13 aces led by Engleman with 5.

The Warriors strong at the front court with Yuran, Brown and Jones, have 2 setters sharing time to get them the ball. Senior Leah Ball and junior Hannah Vetovitch both were strong in their efforts on this evening. However the engine that runs this team is senior Libero and defensive star Taylor Miklos. The senior was flawless on serve receive. Time and time again she made it look easy.  Hard serves, slow serves, turning her back to the ball, her passes to the setters were on the mark and enabled the Warriors offense to flow.

The Warriors improve to 3-1 on the season and look forward to another appearance on the MSA Sports Network. They will also appear on the Hometown Volleyball show on Monday September 22nd.

Tags: Ambridge, Central Valley