CL Freshman Volleyball Walk the Bulldogs, 2-1

Canyon Lake Freshman Volleyball team won their first District 26-4A game when they came back from a one game deficit to beat the Yoakum Bulldogs, 24-26, 25-

CL Hawk Freshman Volleyball talk with Coach Ridgeway after Yoakum win

21, 25-19.

“I am proud of their fight and the comeback,” Head Freshman Coach Tosha Ridgeway said in response to this win.

The Hawks seemed to have everything under control in that first contest, when Yoakum took the lead on an eight service point rally.

CL responded with a four point run of their own but in the end the Bulldogs snatched that first victory and put the Hawks in a hole.

It was in that second game when CL found themselves down 8-10, and Coach Ridgeway substituted Chloe McCuthen in to serve.

The rest would be history as McCuthen would help rally the Hawks with a four point service and help give enough of an edge to pull out a huge game tying victory.

“I usually come in for the second game,” McCuthen said astutely. “I usually don’t serve that many times in a row either but it felt good to serve consistently.”

McCuthen might be a very focused young lady as she did not realize that after her last serve, Canyon Lake, had taken the lead.

“I thought we were still losing,” Mathematician McCuthen said. “I told myself that I was not going to look at the scoreboard until I lost the score….and I was surprised!”

McCuthen would carry on, with her second game heroics, when the third game was still to close to call. Another ace would increase that score for a 16-11 lead and the Hawks would finish off Yoakum, 25-19 in that thriller match.

From Left to Right: Alysha Perez, Hanna White and Chloe McCuthen.

Alysha Perez seemed to get more energy as the game progressed as her kills seemed to be a lot more lethal as each point was scored.

“I was just trying to help the team out,” Perez said. “I was thinking to have faith in ourselves and just get our passes down so our sets will help us get to the ball….I think if we can keep playing hard and believe in ourselves then we can have a good year.”

That was certainly the case on this night when climbing back from that opening game loss turned out to be a game of beauty.

Another good server was Hanna White as her jump serve was a thing of beauty that seemed to be just skimming the net and putting her opponent on the ropes.

“I started with my jump serve when I turned 12, after I had mastered my other serve,” White said. “This was a good game because we got to pick our heads up and push through that first game.”

This Yoakum team also had some runs and in that second game White knew that Canyon Lake could turn the tide.

“I knew we could get one pass up and then we could stop their run,” White said as her team not only stopped their run but also had a chance to walk these Bulldogs back to their bus with a loss.

A good first district win and now CL can work on getting another win this Friday when they travel to Gonzales.

Go Freshman Hawks!!!