West Side Christian sweeps past Garrett Memorial

Terrance Armstard/News-Times West Side Christian's Anna Williams makes a play during the Lady Warriors' volleyball match against Garrett Memorial Thursday night. The Lady Warriors won in straight sets.
Terrance Armstard/News-Times West Side Christian's Anna Williams makes a play during the Lady Warriors' volleyball match against Garrett Memorial Thursday night. The Lady Warriors won in straight sets.

By Tony Burns

Sports Editor

West Side Christian looked dominant in its home volleyball opener Thursday. The Lady Warriors swept Garrett Memorial of Hope, 25-11, 25-20, 25-16 in the Warrior Center and improved to 2-0 on the season.

After rallying from a five-point deficit in the second game, West Side never trailed in the final, getting off to a 10-0 lead on Brooklin Pitard’s service. The lead swelled to 12-1 on an ace by Tori Bates and the Lady Warriors cruised from there.

“I feel really good we came out of here with a victory. There were times we had to work for it and had to get our mind-set back in gear and stay aggressive. That’s the key to us as a team, staying aggressive staying in the game, every play,” said Coach Adam Willett.

“It was a team effort. It was more of a team thing than any individual player. As a whole, we played, at times, really, really well.”

West Side was led by its Big 3 of 6-foot-1 seniors Lauren Land and Anna Williams and Pitard, a junior setter.

Williams led the team with 10 kills plus 10 assists and two aces. Land had eight kills and two blocks. Pitard had a team-high 12 assists to go with eight kills, four aces and a pair of digs.

“Those three really have a dynamic there because they’ve been playing together for several years. They have a chemistry that works really well together,” Willett said. “That’s really the core of our team, right there. The team follows that chemistry and I think that’s good for us.”

The Lady Warriors never trailed in the first game. Pitard had a pair of aces to build a 3-0 lead. The lead was 13-9 before a string of six unanswered points, keyed by the Pitard-to-Williams connection, which accounted for three consecutive kills.

Game 2 saw Garrett Memorial play its best ball of the night, building a 15-10 lead. Pitard had a pair of service winners with Land and Williams recording kills to tie the game at 15-15. Garrett Memorial regained the lead at 19-18 before committing a service error to tie it up. Williams followed with back-to-back aces before Pitard had a pair of put-aways. Land ended the game with a service winner.

“Second game we really were sluggish. We started kind of playing into the environment. It was a little bit warm in the gym,” said Willett. “We’re missing one of our starters tonight. I think we started getting lazy, kind of slow. And then that third game, we really picked it up, played more aggressive. I think that’s the key to every game we play, being aggressive and playing with that mind-set.”

West Side won the junior varsity match 25-15, 19-25, 15-11.

West Side hosts Columbia Christian on Tuesday in a key league matchup.

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