Monday sports: Northpoint volleyball fights off Arlington in season opener

Photo: Northpoint Christian’s Kylee Reynolds fired a kill attempt over the net in Monday’s 3-2 volleyball victory over Arlington, Tenn. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com.)

Aug 19, 2024

Prep volleyball

Northpoint Christian 3, Arlington, Tenn. 2 (25-19, 23-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-13) 

NORTHPOINT CHRISTIAN 3, ARLINGTON, TENN. 2: One thing about this year’s Northpoint Christian volleyball team was learned after Monday night’s five-set win over Tennessee Class AAA Arlington, Tenn.: The Lady Trojans are going to be a bunch of hard hitters.  

“We have some powerful hitters,” said Northpoint coach Kim Robinson. “We have lots of offense, lots of defense, but we just have to find a way to put it all together. What I am seeing is a lot of grit and grind and they are playing like a sisterhood.”  

The Lady Trojans, which made the Tennessee Division 2-A state tournament last season, roared out to a 7-2 lead in the first set and led by as much as 15-8 before the Tigers closed the gap to 18-15. Northpoint would grow the lead to 24-17 and finally put the set away at 25-19.  

Arlington came back to tie the match at 1-1 after a 25-23 win. The Tigers led the set and forced a Northpoint timeout at 19-13. Northpoint recovered and when Sarah Johnson served an ace, Arlington saw its lead shrink to 23-22 and needed a timeout of their own.  Coming out of the timeout, the Tigers scored two of the next three points for the win. 

It was Northpoint’s turn in the third set. Led by a pair of service aces from Avery Beth Freeze, the Lady Trojans held an early 9-5 lead, which became 13-5 before Arlington could stop the run.  A Quinn Thurman ace grew the margin to 15-8 and a kill from Chrissy Nolan gave Northpoint a 20-13 margin. A drop shot from Hassie Claire Tthurman found the Arlington floor for a 25-22 win.  

The Tigers weren’t finished as they again squeezed out a 25-23 set win.  The teams went back and forth with Arlington finally taking a 15-14 lead after a block for a point. The set never went more than three points difference until it was over.  

In the match-deciding first-to-15 fifth set it was Northpoint getting the early lead at 6-2 after another Quinn Thurman kill. But Arlington then rallied to tie the set at 6-6 and at one point held a 12-9 advantage, forcing a Lady Trojan timeout.  

That turned out to be the energy boost Northpoint needed as the Lady Trojans came out of the timeout and scored six of the final seven points for the 15-13 set and match victory.  

For the match, Quinn Thurman finished with 21 kills, 10 digs, 1 Block, 1 ace. Sarah Johnson made 45 assists, 19 digs, and 2 aces. Hassie Claire Thurman was credited with 27 digs and served 1 ace. 

“This was really a good one for us tonight,” Robinson said about the win against a higher ranked Memphis-metro school. 

Northpoint returns to action Tuesday night, traveling to Oxford to play Regents. 

SPORTS ETC.: Hernando boys’ golf won a meet at Mallard Pointe Monday by 15 shots over second-place DeSoto Central 149-164. Oxford took third place at 169 and South Panola was fourth with a team score of 183.

Cole Elander and Jayden Owensby of Hernando tied for medalist honors, each shooting a nine-hole score of one-under 35. John Braxton Jones of South Panola was third at 36 and in fourth place individually was Hernando’s Davis Wilkins at 39.