Lady Flashes’ scorch early competition

JOHNSONVILLE—With convincing wins at home this week, the Lady Flashes volleyball team is off to an impressive start to their post-season play. 

In what can only be described as dominating performances Johnsonville breezed through the first two rounds of the playoffs with wins against C.E. Murray High School Monday and Allendale-Fairfax. A contributing factor to both wins was an impressive display of powerful hits from all over the court. 

“Any of the time that we can hit and spike hard, it is going to be difficult to return,” Lady Flashes’ head coach Tracie LeBherz said following the second round win against Allendale-Fairfax.

That hard-hitting prowess was on full display for both match ups this week. The Lady Tigers from CE Murray struggled early and often against the power brought by the Lady Flashes Monday, mustering only 16 points all night in 25-5, 25-8 and 25-3 routes. The win was led by the team’s upperclassmen leadership. Senior Olivia Hatchell racked up five aces on the night, as did juniors Lindsey Powell and Rachael Roberts.

The night however belonged to Ashlyn Cribb, who was able to pick apart the Lady Eagles with an incredible 15 aces, almost outscoring the opposition on all on her own. Things were made even sweeter with the news that Cribb, along with fellow junior Savannah Gaster, was named to the state All-State squad for Class 1-A. The awards recognized both girls as being among the top 18 volleyballers in the all of South Carolina.

To sweeten the accolades of the defending lower state champions even further, seniors Taylor Bennett and Olivia Hatchell were named to South Carolina’s senior All-Star team. The pair will travel to Lander University later in the year to compete with other senior all-stars in the state all-star game. 

While the team recognized each player’s individual accomplishments the product on the court this week was of a cohesive, intense unit. That intensity was on full display in the second round against Allendale-Fairfax, when Johnsonville refused to allow hard hitting from the Lady Tigers to knock them out of their rhythm, which had a hard hitting flavor all of its own. 

After a quick start in the first game, the Lady Flashes began to cool, allowing Allendale to climb to within ten points early. That would be as close at they would get all night and game one came to an end, 25-15.

For a moment, it looked as if Johnsonville was beginning to slip as the second game got underway. The Lady Tigers would claw to keep a slim margin between them and the Lady Flashes. A 9-0 run would douse those hopes however, and junior Rachel Cribb would hold onto the serve to close things out, 25-8. 

Heat, heat and more heat would leave their opponents scorched in the final game. Attentions now firmly set on round three, LeBertz’s girls wrapped things up 25-9.

Impressive play from the net and good hustle from that Lady Flashes, specifically the all-star Gaster and sophomore Keyarah Turner, proved keys for the win. The pair led the assault by the net, killing what little momentum the Tigers were able to muster earlier in each game.

LeBerz said even though she was happy with the wins, her squad needs to still make some improvements if they want to keep their season alive.

“Tonight, consistency in serving. That’s been an issue for us all year,” LeBerz said. “We have some very good servers its just getting them consistent. Tonight we hustled more than we have hustled in the past,” LeBerz said. “And that helped us get a lot of points that we might not have usually gotten.”