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Once Again, Bulls Corralled

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

NCT senior Lindsey Carper tallied a match-high 19 points, including 13 in the second set, to pace the Lady Sharks’ 25-14, 25-17, 25-16 win Monday night over visiting Wiregrasss Ranch. The win was the Lady Sharks’ sixth in a row this season.

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By TONY CASTRO SPORTS EDITOR

Hernando Today

Published: October 7, 2008

BROOKSVILLE - There was no welcome mat when ex-Nature Coast Technical volleyball coach Mindy Kantor returned to the Sharks' gymnasium Monday night.

Kantor, who left NCT, to take over the reigns at Wesley Chapel-Wiregrass Ranch two seasons ago, finished 6-15 last fall.

More importantly upon playing the Brooksville-based Sharks, the Lady Bulls fell twice.

The pattern continued on Sept. 9 when NCT solved Wiregrass in Pasco County in four sets.

In Monday night's rematch, the Sharks corralled the Bulls in 53 minutes, 25-14, 25-17, 25-16.

Rolling, rolling, rolling

With the win, NCT (14-1 overall) earned its fourth straight series win against Wiregrass (9-6 overall) and sixth consecutive triumph since Central nudged the Sharks in five sets.

For the hosts, senior Lindsey Carper tallied a match-high 19 points, including 13 in the second set.

The Sharks, who converted a match-high 64-of-74 serves (86 percent) complimented Carper's effort with three other players reaching doubling figures.

The county's defending Player of the Year, junior Alex Livengood, chipped in 14 points and added 11 kills from the net.

Senior Kayla Bailey and freshman Courtney Liddle added 12 points from the service line.

"We started out slow again tonight," shrugged the 17-year-old Carper. "Then we started coming back. We knew we had to play our best or we might get beat."

Livengood gave the hosts a mixed report.

"Our passing was better tonight," commented the 17-year-old Livengood. "But right now, I don't think we're playing our best. I think we can play better. "

"Personally, on a 1-10 scale, I'd give myself a "7" tonight; I know I missed some serves."

Second-year Shark Head Coach Dan Murphy acknowledged the win, but thought there was room for growth.

"Again, we were sluggish to open the match," he recalled. "That's kinda been our itinerary all season. We've talked about improving our intensity.

"It's funny, we began the season playing hard for the first 4-5 matches," he said. "But since the Central match, we really haven't picked up the pace to open the match. We really expect to go deep into postseason play, but we can't do that by starting out sluggishly the way we have.

"At least tonight we played our best in the third set," he added. "Give them (Wiregrass) credit, they've worked hard. We just don't have that killer instinct yet."

From the visiting sideline, Coach Kantor said the difference was the passing lanes.

"Tonight was a passing game," she said. "They passed better, so they attacked better. We didn't. I really believe if we would have passed better, we could have taken them."

Overall?

"I'm not disappointed in the least," she said, despite her team converting 39-of-48 serves (81 percent). "This time, I thought Nature Coast was more ready for us. They knew they couldn't take us lightly. We did run some things. Everybody has a night off, ours was tonight. Still, this group has improved 10-fold from the beginning of the season."

Shawna Bailey and Colleen McCaffrey paced the Bulls with nine services points while Tess Chase chipped in eight markers.

NCT 3, WIREGRASS 0

Wiregrass 14 17 16

NCT 25 25 25

Records - Wiregrass (9-6 overall, 5-3 4A-8),

Nature Coast Technical (14-1 overall, 8-0 4A-8).

Sports Editor Tony Castro can be reached at (352) 544-5278 or online at acastro@hernandotoday.com.

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