Corner squeezes past Fultondale
By Charles Prince
The North Jefferson News
FULTONDALE — The Corner Lady Yellow Jackets trailed Fultondale in both games of their match, but they made the big plays at the right time to come from behind and win an outstanding match that neither team should have lost, 26-24 and 27-25.
“A match like that are the ones that make you nervous,” Corner head coach Leah Cross said. “They’re the ones you want to watch, but you don’t want to coach in them, because they go back and forth so much.”
Corner (8-3) trailed 23-20 in the second game of the match, but they then rebounded to tie the score at 25-all, before Erin Tingle and Nicole Russell scored on back-to-back kills to close out the match.
“We noticed that the girls weren’t talking and they had over-worked a few things,” Cross said. “But we started communicating there at the end and the girls were able to pull out a really tough match.”
Heather Howell led the Lady Jackets in the second game with three kills, followed by Jennifer Tolbert, Jeri Taft, Russell and Tingle with two each.
Russell added two aces for the winners.
For Fultondale, Diamond Stanley and Shelbi Smith had two aces each in th e final game.
In the opening game of the match, Russell had four kills, while Tingle had three for the Lady Jackets.
Jordan Westmiller, Monica Roscoe and Smith had one kill each for Fultondale. Stanley and Karleena Unlap scored on three aces each for the Lady Wildcats.
Earlier in the tri-match, Corner defeated Oak Grove, 25-18, 25-6, 23-25 and 25-16.
During the match, Corner served up 40 aces, including 11 by Taft. Oak Grove then defeated the hosts, 25-18 and 25-21.