Oak Glen sweeps past a struggling Lady Bobcats squad
A struggling Cambridge High volleyball team played host to a strong Oak Glen High team on Tuesday night, and the visitors from West Virginia also added to the Lady Cats recent woes.
Jumping out to a red-hot start, the Lady Golden Bears, who entered the night with an 18-8 record, rolled to a three-set sweep over CHS by scores of 25-15, 25-23 and 25-20 inside Gene Ford Gymnasium.
Freshman Brooklyn Six reeled off eight straight points to open the night's action to get Oak Glen off and running with the commanding 8-0 lead. Cambridge had no answers as the Lady Golden Bears never trailed in posting the 25-15 victory.
Cambridge head coach Alexa Beskid explained her squad's recent funk has more to do with the mental part of the game.
"We've been really struggling since the start of the second half of the season," Beskid explained after her team slipped to 7-12 on the year. "I lost one of our starters, Xylvia Francis down at St. Clairsville with a knee injury and since then we have just not been able to do much. We struggle to play consistently, and when you fall behind like we did tonight in that first game it's tough.
"We just don't play consistently, or with any energy," Beskid added. "We have the talent, I feel we have all that talent we need to be successful. We just can't string anything together, and we spot teams like 8-10 point leads like tonight and you are not going to be successful playing like that."
Oak Glenn started game two off with a 3-0 lead, before the Lady Cats showed some life and took their first lead of the night at 4-3. Junior Abby Mann collected four consecutive service points for CHS, including a pair of aces to give her squad a much needed lift.
Cambridge continued to stay within striking distance, and finally pulled even at 18-18 on senior Kylie Taylor's thunderous kill. But Oak Glenn regained the upper hand, and closed out the 25-23 victory with a 7-5 scoring edge down the stretch.
Cambridge took the lead to open game three, taking a 2-0 lead with Taylor delivering back-to-back winners to open play. The two squads then were tied at 3-3, 4-4 and 5-5 before the Lady Golden Bears once again grabbed control and lead the rest of the way to close out the sweep with the 25-20 win.
"We have some skill, I have some girls who can play this game at a high level out there," Beskid stated. "But again we let our mental and emotional side play to hard into what we are doing. And we can't bounce back, we make an error or the other team goes on a run. We struggle to regroup and put it behind us. So hopefully as we continue to work on it, the light bulb will click on for us. Maybe in time for the tournament, that would be nice."
Taylor led the Lady Bobcats' effort with a 15/15 serving effort with one ace, two kills, 20 digs, two blocks, while fellow senior Ryan Dunning was 2/2 serving, along with 12 kills, seven digs, two blocks. Anna Hill finished 8/8 serving with one ace, three digs.
Mann checked in with 10/12 serving with two aces, three kills, eight digs, three blocks, two assists, with Kaitlyn Biddle adding 6/6 serving, eight digs, 14 assists, Jaedyn Lallithan chipped in with 9/10 serving, one kill, three digs and Gabby Oliver collected two digs.
Oak Glenn took the JV match 25-15, 25-14 over the young Lady Bobcats who slip to 3-16 on the season. Cambridge leaders included Destiny Garcia, 5/5 serving with one ace, two kills, nine digs, Jaylyn Lincicome, 3/3 serving, eight digs, Alea Jones, 3/3 serving, five digs, Gwen Jeffries, 7/7 serving, two digs, three assists, Grace Dempsey, 3/3 serving, one dig and Abby Roth, 8/8 serving with three aces, five digs
NEXT - Cambridge hosts Beaver Local on Thursday for the Buckeye 8 crossover match. Varsity only with a 4 p.m. start time.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Jeffersonian: Oak Glen sweeps past a struggling Lady Bobcats squad
