Central Mountain 3,Bald Eagle Area. 1

CM      25 25 25 25

BEA.    19 27 18 14

Photo by Tim Weight

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE- Two top local volleyball teams met up in a Monday evening in a non-conference match up.

Central Mountain traveled to Wingate to take on a tough Bald Eagle Area squad in a game of 9-1-1 versus 4-2.

With strong outside hitting performances by Gabby Beaubrun and teammate Sofia Kelley, both were strong in the 3-1 victory over the Eagles.

Bald Eagle Area got a strong effort from Leah Bryan as she was a dominant force from the outside and inside.

Central Mountain won in the four set contest (25-19, 27-25, 25-18, 25-14.

“It was a good team win. Bald Eagle is a good team. We showed up to play,” said Central Mountain Coach Chipp McCann. “We matched up pretty well with them. We knew that coming in. They’re really strong on the right side and our outside is strong. I feel like we’re pretty strong across the board. I felt like we could get the win coming in here we’d have to play well and we played well enough to win.”

In the opening contest, the Wildcats notched the 25-19 victory in a tough match up right off the bat.

Leading the Wildcats offense from the service line was Sophia Hardy had five points while teammate Lily Downing finished with three.

In that contest, both Kelly and Beaubrun were deadly accurate with solid spikes and strong hits.

Central Mountain jumped out to a 6-3 lead.

However, Bald Eagle was able to pull within one thanks to an ace by Bryan and two side outs, 7-6.

But three consecutive service points by Downing extended the lead  to five points and were able to keep that distance throughout the game, taking the first game.

Back bounced Bald Eagle in game two, the Lady Eagles were able to keep Kelley in check for most of the contest.

However, the Wildcats still had Beaubrun as she continued to make an impact throughout.

Offensively, the Eagles got off to a sizzling start with five consecutive service points by Casey Angellotti. In that run, Bryan would hit two slams that would not be returned.

But Central Mountain came battling back chipping away with three consecutive service points by Allison Koch, cutting it to a 6-5 Bald Eagle advantage.

With the Lady Eagles leading 8-7, the Wildcats once again heated things up on the service line, Chole Confer rolled off six consecutive service points to take the lead at 13-8.

But in the end, the Eagles would chip its way back into the game, forcing a 25-25 tiebreaker.

Two service points by Emily Smith gave the Eagles the victory.

“In the first set I thought they (Bald Eagle) struggled a lot from the service line,” said Bald Eagle Area coach Taylor Geidroc. “In the second set which they came back and won, I thought they did a better job passing but we just kind of hurt ourselves on our own errors. They’re (Central Mountain) is a good team. They have awesome servers and pretty strong hitters but I think we struggled with managing the ball.”

In the third set, the two teams fought back-and-forth in yet another tight contest closely mirroring the first.

But Beaubrun totally took over the service line and front line.

With the score tied at six, a Central Mountain side out put the ball in the hands of Beaubrun at the service line.

She added to her busy night with five consecutive service points to spark the Wildcats and help them take the lead and never looked back as they took game three, 25-18.

Central Mountain took control early in the fourth match of the night ending the contest at 25-14.