If Thursday night was any indication, the UHA Lady Blazers appear to be more than ready for the volleyball post season. University Heights opened blazing hot and left the Apollo E-Gals in their wake, rolling to a straight set sweep of the perennial 3rd Region contender.
The first set it was all UHA. With the E-Gals leading 3-2, the Lady Blazers went on a 14-1 run to take a 16-4 lead, and effectively end the set. Apollo would get within seven at 21-14, but UHA closed out the set with the final four points to win it 25-14. The Lady Blazers got a balanced effort in the set with big contributions from Clarissa Miller, Evelyn Morales, Beth Peebles, Lily Hendricks, and Meghan Adams.
The beatdown in the opening set appeared to get the E-Gal’s attention, at least at the beginning of the set. Apollo opened the second set by taking a 4-1 lead. The lead would grow to as many as seven at 15-8 before the Lady Blazers then made their move to get back in the battle. UHA went on a 6-1 run to trim the lead to 16-14. The UHA roll continued, as the Lady Blazers added an 8-3 spurt to go up 22-19. UHA would then hold Apollo at bay to take the set 25-21 and go up 2 sets to none.
Net play was big for UHA in their comeback in the second set. The Lady Blazers came up with four blocks, two of those by Katie Beth Stevens. Evelyn Morales added four kills during the rally for the Lady Blazers.
Coming out of their rally in the second set, the Lady Blazers set the tone early in the third. UHA opened with a 4-1 lead, and then extended that to 10-3. The E-Gals tried to battle their way back into the set and back into the match, tying it at 19, 20, 22, 24, and taking the lead at 25-24. The set would then go back and forth until Evelyn Morales served up an ace to close out the set 31-29 and the match 3-0.
Again, a big time balanced effort for UHA in the third set, with every player seeing time on the court making some kind of worthwhile contribution to the effort. The third set saw big plays at the net from Morales Adams, and Stevens, exceptional digs from Lily Hendricks, and perfect sets from Beth Peebles.
With the win, UHA improves to 19-4 on the season. Lady Blazers return to action Friday night when they begin play in the Toyota of Hopkinsville Western Kentucky Smack Down.
