Lady Cats Fall to North Country in Straight Sets
Share
Tweet
Lady Cat senior Ma'Lea Moore soars high to slam down a Kill against the North Country Mavericks Thursday night. Harlem fell in the match 25-22, 25-25, 25-22.
The Harlem Lady Cats took the court just once this past week hosting the North Country Mavericks on Thursday. Harlem had plenty of chances to make something happen, but in the end, it was the visitors that earned a 25-22, 25-15, 25-22 straight set win over the Lady Cats.
Junior Emma Billmayer found a spot in the Maverick defense to give the Lady Cats an early 8-6 lead in the opening set. Harlem had control for much of the set leading 16-13 following an Ace from sophomore Aaraya Mount and then a couple of blocks from senior Jessica King to extend the Harlem lead to 19-13.
North Country battled their way back even at 20-20. Senior Ma'Lea Moore tried to keep the Lady Cats hope alive with a Kill near the end, but North Country pulled out a 25-22 first set win.
Harlem stayed close early on in set number two with a Kill from junior Kaitlynn Johnson to make the score 10-7 in favor of the Mavericks. From that point on the visitors seemed to catch all the bounces in pulling away for a 25-15 second set win to push Harlem to the brink.
In the third set Harlem seemed to have all the momentum on their side early on. A boisterous student body section provided plenty of noise and energy helping the Lady Cats jump out to a 7-0 lead early on.
The Mavericks called timeout and seemed to rally coming out of it scoring four quick points. Rider split the defense for a well-placed point to keep Harlem in front 9-4. Moments later King slammed home another point to give the Lady Cats an 11-7.
North Country again rallied and took a 16-14 advantage leading to a Lady Cat timeout. Billmayer, King and Rider would all make nice plays at the net down the stretch but just couldn't close the gap with the Mavericks, dropping the third set 25-22.
"I wasn't happy about the loss, but for the most part I was happy with the way we played against a tough North Country team. If we hadn't shot ourselves in the foot with errors at the service line and attacks, we would have won at least the first and third sets," said Harlem Head Coach Kim Faulkinberry.
Faulkinberry has a game plan moving forward, "We are looking forward to gelling a bit more as a team and put our best efforts as we move into the latter half of the season. We always tell the girls, it isn't how we start, it is how we finish!"
The Lady Cats will stay home this week, hosting the Cut Bank Wolves on Thursday and the Poplar Indians on Saturday.
