Tuesday night’s Cave Spring volleyball opener wasn’t the typical smash-mouth style indicative of a Knights team that has won five state championships under head coach Tamalyn Tanis since 2002 and are a perennial powerhouse even in the off-years. Chalk it up to the first game of the season or the fact that the 2013 edition only has three seniors on the squad.
The Knights nonetheless managed to recover from a second-game loss, and walked away with a 3-1 (25-14; 22-25; 26-24; 25-22) win over the visitors from Jefferson Forest that entered the match with a 0-2 record.
Cave Spring came out of the huddle to start game three and seemed ready to dominate when they bolted out to a quick 11-3 lead. The Cavaliers, however, gradually cut the deficit and would eventually lead 20-18 before the Knights regrouped and pulled out of a 24-24 tie with a decisive kill by junior Charity Klimaitis and a JF double-hit on the subsequent serve that gave the Knights the 26-24 win. In the game-four clincher Cave Spring pulled away from a 7-7 tie with runs of 5-1 and 6-2 to secure the 25-22 win.
It was a sister act for the Cave Spring power game as Charity Klimaitis fired 11 kills past the Cavalier defense and sister Tessa added 10 kills and six blocks. Senior Olivia Sass set the table for the Knights front line with 32 assists.
By Bill Turner