By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

SPRING GARDEN – It’s quite unusual for Spring Garden volleyball coach Ricky Austin to call a timeout.

Already up a set after winning 25-19 and trailing by four points at 15-11 in the second against the Cherokee County Lady Warriors, Austin took a rare break in the action.

He talked to the Lady Panthers about their intensity.

“We were down four points three different times and battled back to one (in the second set). I guess we were just satisfied,” Austin said. “I don’t call many timeouts, but it’s that time of the year. When you call timeouts, you can lose the effectiveness if you just call them every time and bail them out of trouble, but it was time to call timeout and see if they could respond. I had a feeling we’d see a little something different out of them, and they responded (down the stretch).”

Coach Austin’s intuition was correct as usual.

Down 21-17 late, Ace Austin and Chloe Rule took charge for the Lady Panthers (39-3). The younger Austin closed out the set by serving eight straight points to take a 25-21 win.

The momentum shift carried over to the third set, as the Lady Panthers completed the sweep with a 25-15 win on senior night. It was their 29th straight match win.

“I thought our defense played real well during that stretch (in the second set),” Coach Austin said. “We got some key blocks. Chloe come alive on the net. She kind of took over. That was nice to see. We’ve been waiting for Ace all year to be on that front row and ride her, but it’s awful nice when Chloe and Olivia (Law) and Maggie Jarrett do their parts. Chloe is starting to really control some matches when she’s on the front. We need her to keep doing it.”

Lady Warrior coach Tiffany Rieger also paid respect to the Lady Panthers for their rally in the second set.

“I told them when I called a timeout in set two that Ace is not going to hand you this game. She’s going to want the ball. She’s going to come in and be swinging hard. She and Chloe just took over the match,” Rieger said. “I haven’t seen Chloe play that much, but that’s probably the best I’ve seen her play. Those shots she was hitting in right front were ridiculous.”

Rieger also said the Lady Warriors (23-14) are still “a little spotty when it comes to our mental game.”

“We’re either way up or way down. There’s usually no in-between,” she said. “I never know from set to set which one of my teams is going to show up. I don’t want to use that as an excuse, but that’s part of being young. I don’t want to take anything away from (Spring Garden), but we made too many errors and had too many mental mistakes.”

Ace Austin delivered 15 kills, seven digs and an ace for the Lady Panthers. Rule posted seven kills and six blocks. Avery Steward came away with 23 assists. Law collected three kills, three blocks, two digs and an ace.

Layla Ingram added five digs, an assist and two aces. Kristen Lewis contributed two digs, two aces and an assist. Jarrett managed four digs. Reedy had a pair of digs. Libby Brown finished with a dig.

Nevaeh Gaidurgis led the Lady Warriors with 12 kills, five digs, three assists and two blocks. Macy Lea accounted for 19 assists, seven digs and a pair of kills. Lilly Shaw contributed three kills and a dig. Vivian Connell came away with three kills and a block.

Ava Haygood had six digs, four kills and an ace. Libby Curry collected three kills, three digs, two aces and an assist. Ellisan Givens accumulated eight digs, three assists and an ace. Emilee Paul posted three digs and three aces.

“It’s good to see you not playing what you think is your A-game and still beat a good team like Centre,” Coach Austin said. “That’s encouraging, but at the same time, I think Centre did a very good job of staying right there to the end.”

“I was happy to see a little more fight in them, a little more competitiveness in them than we saw against them in the county tournament,” Rieger said. “The first two sets were really competitive. The third set not so much. When you’re blocking, it may go off (out of bounds). Some of those things just don’t go your way sometimes. I think too many times we let that get in our head and let it bother us instead of shaking it off. That’s something we’ve got to work on.”

Cherokee County travels to Jacksonville for a tri-match with Alexandria on Tuesday. Spring Garden is in a tri-match with Westbrook Christian at Sand Rock on Thursday.