By Brittany Llorente
Staff writer
SEBASTIAN - The Sebastian River High School Sharks knocked down the Palm Bay High School Pirates 3-0 at the temporary Sharks home court at Sebastian River Middle School, last Thursday night.
The first set was a clear win for the Sharks, 25-12 with Tiffany Cobb and Kara Robinson scoring aces. Morgan Cole was a quick setter for spikes for Robinson, Tamara Hunt and Kalin Gabbert.
With Gabbert serving, the Shark's went on a 7-point rally that closed out the first set.
The second set was a Pirate's comeback. The Pirate's Catie Braun was a defensive wall on the net, shutting down more than 8 Sharks points.
"I have a lot of good timing from being a dancer," said Braun. "I want to be more emotionally tied to the game so that I'm more aggressive. I also need to work on my hits more."
The Pirates led by more than double the points until the 15-point mark. Savannah Waters and Brittany Best's serves rallied the Pirates close to sealing the win when the Sharks closed in.
Sharks Morgan, Hunt and Cole's serves hammered the Pirates. The nail-biting end put the Sharks on top 25-23.
"I thought we fought really hard tonight," Robinson said. "I've been playing for awhile now and I've learned that teamwork is so important and when you work together, everything falls into place."
With a close second set, the Sharks finished strong in the third. Cobb had a 6-point rally followed by strong set-serve offense.
The Pirate's offense was having communication problems, with some players almost crashing into each other on the court. The great team effort in the second set fell apart at the net and center of the court in the third.
"When we played well we communicated," Pirate's Coach Troy White said. "When they were scoring points on us, we weren't communicating."
The Sharks finished the game 25-12, starting and finishing the sets with the same scores.
"I thought we started off pretty well but we've really been working on finishing and taking care of business," Shark's head coach Whitney Jones. "Our serve-receive game worked really well for us tonight."