The Franklin girls volleyball team came into Tuesday night's playoff match against Fort LeBoeuf with determination and a game plan. They stuck to it and at the end of four sets found themselves with their first post-season win since Coach Matt Jones' return to the team eight years ago.
| "We were determined to win the game," Jones said. "We hit some low spots but we didn't stay down." The match started off slow for the Knights, who found themselves down 1-4 early before they rallied back to take a 8-4 behind Estella Adams' solid and planned serving. "They (Fort LeBeouf) have two girls who pass the ball really well," Jones said. It was Franklin's goal to keep the ball from them as much as possible. "We didn't get a lot of aces, but it took them (Bison players) out of their game." The Bison did push back to close the gap several times, but the Knights remained in overall control of the scoreboard to capture the 25-22 win. Franklin stumbled in the second set, struggling to find momentum and committed several playing errors. The Bison took the second set 13-25. Jones said he told his team to refocus and let go of the loss so they could get back to the plan. Heading into the third set Franklin, region 3's fifth seed, came out with renewed determination. It was a back and forth start until Adams stepped up again with solid serving to help Franklin jump ahead 8-3. The Bison, region four's 4th seed, fought back and even took the lead. As both teams started to close in on 25 points, Franklin got a jolt of energy from a commanding spike by Katie Boal who had been largely shutdown up to this point. "You have to credit (LeBoeuf's) middle hitters - they put up good blocks and took (Boal) out of her game," Jones said. "Katie is usually our bread and butter on offense. She has led the team in kills all season." The battle for the third set continued past regulation and ended with a net call on LeBoeuf and a 28-26 victory for Franklin. The fourth, and what turned out to be the final set, started out with an energetic first point taken by the Bison. Then Franklin took control, eventually pulling out to a 9-5 lead. It was back and forth volleyball from there. It came down to smart, hard play in the end, as Franklin captured the win 25-23 on an out-of-bounds serve by Fort LeBeouf. Jones said about LeBoeuf's shutting down Boal could've been the deciding factor if it wasn't for others stepping up. "Our total eneregy," Jones said was key. "We hit a couple low spots and we did not stay down and we came back. I feel like we wanted to win more than they did." This was a big deal for the Franklin program. four years ago this team only won one match. The following year they only won three. They made playoffs last year but were ousted right away by Harborcreek. "This is pretty exciting for this group of kids," Jones said. "It was a lot of fun tonight." |      |
Franklin will now face Saegertown at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 26 at Conneaut Area High School in Linesville.
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