Varsity Volleyball: Knights Get Boost from Unexpected Source

By Ben Spector
Winning After MidKnight

 

The Middletown High School Knights Varsity Volleyball team has been searching for a boost of momentum all year to help propel them to the goals that they have wanted to reach.

That momentum source may have come from an unlikely place; a meaningless early season tournament game in which the Knights fell in the quarterfinals of the tournament.

But, it only takes a deeper inspection into the loss and how it happened and to realize the spark of momentum it will provide the Knights when they take on the Maryland School for the Deaf Orioles on Tuesday September 13^th at 7:00 p.m.

The Knights would compete in the Mason-Dixon Invitational at Westminster High School in a twelve team tournament that had no more value besides the fact that whoever won the tournament that would have bragging rights against the other teams in the tournament.

The game changer for the Knights in this tournament was that they were playing against some of the tougher competition in the area and would get a chance to prove what team they really were.

Middletown would go through the opening pool and take two out of three matches from the round-robin tournament to jump into the quarterfinal where they would face the Northern High School Patriots, the defending state champions and by far the toughest team that Middletown had faced all year.

Even though the Knights fell, they would battle with the Patriots for the whole match taking the second and final set to extra points. It wouldn’t be a stretch to say that if the match was a traditional five-set match unlike the three-set match that the tournament was using the Knights could’ve easily won a set or two and made the Patriots sweat it out.

Regardless, of the result of the match the Knights have a new found confidence and will take that confidence into their match with the Orioles, as they face the three-time defending National Deaf Interscholastic Athletic Association (NDIAA) Division I Volleyball champions.

The Orioles will be the second tough test the Knights have had after the game against the Patriots and will look to take the momentum that they gained from that game and put it into this contest against the Orioles.

The Knights will look to rely on the same weapons that helped them in the Mason-Dixon Invitational as the Knights had success across the board and used a multitude of weapons to gain the momentum that they so desperately needed.

Middletown senior Erika Pritchard would be up to her usual routine as she recorded 57 kills and 30 digs during the tournament and was named to the all tournament team. Also chipping in for Middletown was senior Kelsey Buckley and junior Megan Cleverly who each had 44 assists for the Knights while junior outside hitter Aliya Lipinski would have the most rounded day of any of the Knights picking up 18 kills, 11 digs, and 6 aces for Middletown.

It would take a team effort to do it but the Knights finally found their groove and win or lose against the Orioles they’ll look to stay in that grove for a while.