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Streaks Silence Dragons

Chris Hoffman/Highlands Today

Sebring's Hannah Shoop 43 celebrates after the Blue Streaks take a one-point lead in the third game of Monday's match against Lake Placid.

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By CHRIS HOFFMAN

Highlands Today

Published: October 15, 2008

SEBRING - Despite being in enemy territory, Lake Placid's contingent of volleyball fans never let up and nearly took the roof off the Sebring gym on Monday night.

Spurred on by the crowd, the Green Dragons came roaring back from an 0-2 deficit to push the Blue Streaks to a fifth-game tiebreaker in the latest installment of the Heartland's most entrenched volleyball rivalry.

"The fans played such a big part in our comeback," said Lake Placid's Tiffany Bisbey. "They were so loud and really gave the whole team the boost we needed."

But Sebring's stamina and strong will drowned out the crowd noise, as the Streaks hung on for a 25-20, 25-18, 22-25, 21-25, 15-9 non-district victory over the cross-county rival Green Dragons to sweep the season series.

Not surprisingly, Sebring sophomore Anna West had a different view of the of the Lake Placid fans' volume.

"We wanted to shut the Lake Placid fans up," West said. "This is our gym and it felt like they were trying to take over.

"But we weren't going to let them."

With the match tied at two games a piece, the momentum had a green tint to it as Lake Placid rode pure adrenaline into the fourth game, which saw the Green Dragons streak out to a 10-2 lead and never look back as Sebring never got closer than six points to set up the tiebreaker.

"I think we got a little complacent during the third and fourth games," West said. "But take nothing away from Lake Placid: They've added some new plays and gave us some different looks that they were able to capitalize on. They executed during those games and we didn't."

Lake Placid head coach Marilyn Jones looked at the positives in the match, and stressed the loss should be used a wake-up call as her team heads toward the district playoffs.

"These are the kind of teams that you have to win against occasionally," Jones said. "This game had so much hype surrounding it and the girls really put everything they had into it. I thought we came back strong to push Sebring to a fifth game.

"During that fifth game, we just didn't get our passes to the right people. We set Sebring up more than we did ourselves."

During the break before the fifth game, West said Sebring head coach Venessa Sinness was nearly silent in her demeanor toward the team.

"Coach Sinness just said she didn't have much to say," said West, who finished with nine kills on the night. "But that this was our game, and we went out and proved who the better team was tonight."

After Lake Placid's Sierra Weaver hit a spike for the first point of the fifth game, Sebring exploded by scoring 10 of the next 13 points to take a 10-4 lead on the strength of West's two kills and a block. Senior Hannah Shoop added a power shot and an ace, which energized an electric crowd of Blue Streak fans.

Karley Freeland came right back with a winner of her own and Sebring cruised to a six-point win and the celebration began.

"This was almost a carbon-copy of our first meeting," Sinness said. "I thought we came out strong and our communication was great. But then Lake Placid elevated their game and took us out of our game. We began to make errors - unforced errors - that weren't like us in the first two games.

"I'm proud of the girls for hanging in there against a huge crowd of Green Dragon fans."

Sebring cruised through the first two games, using crisp passes and good sets to put their hitters in position for easy points. Lake Placid's game was hot and cold in the early going, with the Green Dragons putting it together in spurts, which allowed them to take a one-point lead midway through the second game on back-to-back kills by Bisbey.

But Lake Placid would score just two more points during a game-ending 10-2 run by the home team to put the Green Dragons in a huge hole.

That's when the switch flipped toward Lake Placid's side of the net.

With the score tied at 14 in game three, Lake Placid outplayed the home team with visible determination, culminating in big points on a pair of long rallies.

During a stretch between the third and fourth games, Lake Placid outshot Sebring 28-16 to win game three and take a 17-8 lead into the fourth, where Weaver was a one-woman wrecking crew for the Green Dragons, as her three kills, two solo blocks and an ace gave her team a four-point win to force the tiebreaker.

"We really played as a team during the latter half of the game tonight," Bisbey said. "It just came down to who wanted it more and they proved that they did by winning.

"It's still a fun game to play when we are matched up against Sebring, but I wouldn't trade our district titles to beat them."

Shoop led a balanced Blue Streak attack with 17 kills and 10 blocks, while Molly Blackman had 10 kills and four blocks, Freeland had 11 kills and Brit Augustin had 41 assists in the win.

Chris Hoffman can be reached at 863-386-5827 or at choffman@highlandstoday.com.

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