Princeton completes regular-season sweep of Gators

By Ryan Hanchett
Published in Sports on October 2, 2013 1:46 PM

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SEVEN SPRINGS -- Spring Creek made Princeton uncomfortable, but in the end the Bulldogs did enough to stay unbeaten in Carolina 1-A Conference play with a 25-7, 25-19, 23-25, 25-20 volleyball victory on Monday night.

Princeton (15-1 overall, 10-0 CC) cruised through the first set, took care of business in the second and appeared ready to send everyone home early in the third before Spring Creek rallied.

With the Gators trailing 23-16, Olivia Martinez stepped to the service line and reeled off nine perfect serves. Spring Creek fended off multiple attacks and managed to work the ball to its own hitters in order to preserve the rally.

A pair of kills by Rachel McCollum extended the match to a fourth set.

"I don't know what it was, but we looked tentative out there," Princeton head coach Page Renfrow said. "Normally we are aggressive and we make plays in those situations, but tonight you could see that we were thinking rather than reacting."

Princeton regrouped and built a 22-12 lead in the fourth set before Spring Creek mounted yet another charge.

Back-to-back kills by Martinez and McCollum stole the momentum back for the Gators, who cut the deficit to 23-20. The Bulldogs ended the contest with kills by Tori Paul and Savanna Massengill.

"Obviously we played much better this time than when we played at (Princeton)," Spring Creek head coach Deanna Morris said. "I thought that after the first set it was a pretty even match. Hopefully we can use this to build some momentum with another big conference match on Thursday."

McCollum led Spring Creek (11-5, 7-3) with 18 kills, including 13 in the final two sets. Martinez added nine kills and one block.

Massengill carried the bulk of the workload for Princeton with 18 kills, two blocks and two aces. Paul added 11 kills and two aces. Taylor Carroll tallied eight kills and two aces.

Princeton is the guest of North Duplin on Thursday, while Spring Creek travels to Rosewood.