No Game 1 win? No home crowd? No problem for the Sumter Academy volleyball team.

Despite a Game 1 loss and a raucous home atmosphere in the Southern Academy gymnasium not all that different from the Cougars’ football field’s on Friday nights, the Eagles took Wednesday’s volleyball match three games to one, winning 25-16, 25-19, and 25-15. The win gave Sumter a win in the season series between the two rivals, the Eagles having taken the last two contests after dropping a tournament match to the Cougars earlier in the season.

With the win Sumter moves to 10-5 on the season and 10-1 outside of tournament play.

With their pumped up crowd behind them, the Cougars broke open a tight Game 1 with outstanding play from their front line. Attack-minded junior Megan Davis got the first point of the match with a kill and two spikes in three points by Heather Acker earned Southern an early 5-2 lead. But thanks to solid defense and hard service from the Eagles’ Brittany Bishop, Sumter took the next seven points to go up 9-5.

The two teams traded points behind kills from the Cougars’ Andrea Weeks’ and blocks from the Eagles’ Erin Ozment, until Southern finished the game with a 14-2 run. Acker won service to bring the Cougars to 14-12 before Katie Broussard rang up a streak of three consecutive aces. With Southern up 21-16 Acker recorded a block and kill back-to-back and when Davis won a joust at the net to stretch the lead to 23-16, the game was all but over and the Cougars took it 25-16.

After the high level of play in Game 1, Game 2 started out with sloppy play on both sides as multiple service errors and missed returns resulted in a 5-5 tie. Sumter began to pull away with an Alley Rundles ace and a kill from Kate Bonner that put the Eagles ahead 12-8. The lead stretched to 19-13 on an Ozment ace before libero Angie Tanner made an outstanding dig to set up a Brandy Walden kill and earn Sumter a 21-15 edge. That point seemed to take something out of the Cougars as a series of Eagle kills from Bishop and Walden finished the game off at 25-16.

The Cougars would never get fully back into the match as the Eagles’ momentum paid off in Game 3 and 4 wins. Although the Cougars would come within six at the close of Game 3, losing 25-19, there weren’t enough answers in Game 4 as Sumter took a decisive 25-15 Game 4 win to go home with the victory.

Sumter moves on to face Marion Academy in a road match Thursday afternoon. Southern is back in action Tuesday with a home contest against Warrior Academy.

Cougar JV wins 2-0

The Southern JV volleyball team took both games of their match with Sumter to claim the best-of-three victory.

In Game 1 the Cougars were in control from start to finish as Lauren Miller started the match by serving up a pair of aces. A good play by the Eagles’ Morgan Clowers tied the game at 4, but that would be the last time Sumter would draw even as the Cougars scored 21 of the next 28 points behind aces from Jessica Lavender, Mary Cris Segura, and lastly Alayna Hilton to take the game 25-11.

Although Sumter cut a 17-9 Game 2 Cougar lead to two at 17-15 thanks to a kill from Sidney Collins, it wasn’t quite enough as Southern’s Lindsey Sexton and Amber Miller made several plays down the stretch to push the lead back to eight at 24-16. Lavender served out the game at 25-16 to give Southern the match.