Volleyball: CL Hawks Get Pay Back in Win over Bandera, 3-1

CL Hawks huddling before key win over Bandera. (photo by Hayley Melone)

Canyon Lake had pay back in their win over Bandera for a seldom used Monday contest that now has the Hawks making plans for their Bi-District tilt with the Salado Eagles next week.

              Way to Go Hawks

The Lake started slow but heated up in time in winning the next 3 sets for a 3-1 victory over another tough District 28-4A foe in the Bulldogs.

“Stop serving to their Libero,” Head Coach Kim Clemons said in a response on what happened that turned this game around after that first set loss. “We were motivated to win this game because we did not want to play Fredericksburg and on a Saturday and of course take a chance in not making the playoffs.”

CL actually took an early 6-2 lead but were caught when the Bulldogs had a 4 serve rally that tied up at 9 points a piece. From that point on, Bandera had control of this first set after running to a 7 point lead, 22-15. The Hawks did have a mini run but the hill was too steep and a first set loss, 20-25.

That same scenario was repeated during the second set when CL jumped out to 5-0 advantage only to see those same Bulldogs even the score 10 all, but this time the Hawks stopped that advancement and never trailed in tying this important battle at one set a piece. Bandera stayed close but could never get the advantage.

Bandera was the aggressor to start the 3rd set and had a 7-3 lead before a Kaitlyn Cox 4 serve rally had the Hawks in the lead, 8-7. This rally had Sr. Caroline Kullberg with 3 kills that seemed to jump start your Hawks for the rest of this evening.

                    Go Hawks!

Taylor Fillinger was next with a 6 point service that had Sophomore Megan Vorhis (17 kills) starting her motor with 3 kills with Kullberg chipping in the other kill and a Hawk, 16-10 lead.

Canyon Lake continued with a 3 point lead before Kayla Wunderlich finished the Bulldogs with a 6 point serve and a powerful kill from Sophomore Olivia Robinson highlighting this rally which gave CL their 2nd set win, 25-16.

“Coach told us to stop serving to their Libero,” Robinson said in response to the slow start. “We were not going to focus on our mistakes and we were just going to keep going and do something good.”

CL would repeat and rinse on what would be that final set win by the same score, 25-16. This set was started with kills from Cassidy Felps, Kullberg, Vorhis, and Kayla Wunderlich in showing how deep this team can be when they are on.

Lainee Moses and Olivia Robinson will ready themselves for a battle against Salado next.

This game was Senior night and those Seniors were all on board in helping Canyon Lake take this win after Kullberg (5) and Wunderlich (9) combined for 14 kills.

Lainee Moses who resides with 927 digs, is now 73 digs in taking 2nd place, on that All-Time list with Faith Hasness (1000) next in line. Moses (547) could seize the All-Time digs for a season from Hayley Melone (583) based on how many more games can be coaxed during this time of win or go home part of the season.

“At the beginning (of the game) we were trying to keep a positive attitude,” Moses recalled. “Sometimes it takes a while for us to warm up…during the first part of games we do not have any stress and we need to keep our mental part of our game up and it was just a mental thing….we were not playing up to our potential earlier but we were all confident coming into this game today.”

On what the team’s goals for the playoffs are, “We are going at least three rounds!”

While Cassidy Felps has 73 aces so far, passed her sister Kyndall (63) 4 games ago, for the most aces in a season.

               Let’s Go Hawks!!

It is not all Seniors though as Sophomore Vorhis now has 99 blocks and needs 20 more to pass Anna Bettersworth (119) for a season best.

Canyon Lake will be back in action next Monday or Tuesday as they will lock horns with the 2nd Seed, Salado team, that lost to The Lake earlier this year during the Tex-Fest Tournament.

That was a long time ago and teams can certainly change as a season continues….the Hawks know that for sure as they now have officially started their upward move at the right time….The Post-Season.

Go Hawks!!

CL (22-17) vs. Bandera: 20-25, 25-22, 25-16, 25-16
CL Leaders:
Kills:  Megan Vorhis       17
        Kayla  Wunderlich   9
        Olivia Robinson     7
        Caroline Kullberg   5
Assits: Cassidy Felps      34
Digs:   Lainee Moses       16
Aces:   Kayla Wunderlich    3
Blocks: Megan Vorhis        4

CLJV won,        25-7 & 25-13
CL Freshman won, 25-15, 25-22