ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, November 6, 1996 TAG: 9611060075
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB TEITLEBAUM STAFF WRITER
Penny Williams returned to her old digs Tuesday night and left with her first Northwest Region victory as Cave Spring's volleyball coach.
The Knights needed barely an hour to dispose of E.C. Glass 15-3, 10-15, 15-8 in a first-round match that was played at Patrick Henry High School, where Williams coached until coming to Cave Spring. The game was moved because the Knights' gym was being used as an election polling place.
``I was looking up, saw a Cave Spring sign and said how weird this is. But Patrick Henry was very gracious to let us use this gym,'' said Williams, whose previous regional appearance with the Knights resulted in a road loss a year ago.
Cave Spring wasn't as polite to the visitors from Lynchburg because 6-foot-3 Lindsay Cannon and 6-1 Jenny Lemker dominated at the net. The victory earned the Knights a trip to a regional semifinal Thursday at Albemarle against the Patriots, who beat Franklin County, the other Roanoke Valley District entry, 15-8, 15-6 in another first-round match.
The Cave Spring-Albemarle survivor will advance to the Northwest Region final and qualify for next week's Group AAA tournament.
Cannon had 15 kills and Lemker added 13. The whole night might have turned, though, on the service of Cave Spring's Kim Amos. The Knights (19-2) fell behind 3-1, then rallied to lead 5-3. Amos closed the match for Cave Spring by serving on 10 consecutive winning points.
``Kim did that in the district against William Fleming,'' Williams said of Amos, who scored 14 of the Knights' 40 points against the Hilltoppers.
Glass (11-8) came back in the second game, but the third game was no contest as Cave Spring scored the first six and 10 of the first 11 points.
``I didn't get nervous,'' Cannon said of the Hilltoppers' second-game victory. ``I know our team is good at persevering.''
So is Glass. The Hilltoppers trailed Patrick Henry 2-0 in the same gym during a regular-season match and came back to win.
Cave Spring's slow start wasn't a problem, either.
``Once in awhile, we have a hard time getting going,'' Lemker said. ``But once we get momentum, it usually stays on our side.''
Lemker also knows where the Knights' strength is. ``It starts with our net game,'' she said. ``Hitting is the strongest part of our game, but we also have chemistry.''
Darien McClurg, E.C. Glass' coach, agreed the Knights' hitting is hard to stop.
``We had some lapses and got in too deep a hole in the third game,'' McClurg said. ``High school volleyball tends to be one of momentum swings and theirs were bigger than ours.
``Those two middle hitters are good and they had a big height advantage. But we did some favors for them when we overpassed.''
LENGTH: Medium: 56 linesby CNB